Native American Tribes Object to Some Firefighting Methods

Northern California Indian tribes from the Klamath River canyon are worried that the US Forest Service is violating some of their sacred lands with its methods of fighting a remote wilderness wildfire rather than leaving it to burn naturally.

The Yurok tribal liaison with the Forest Service, Chris Peters, says the lands are their Sistine Chapel or Vatican, containing prayer seats or vision quest sites shared by the three tribes for thousands of years.

He said the use of drip torches to set backfires violates their concept of natural order.

The forest Service says it is aware of the concerns but that measures must be taken to control fires to keep them from spreading during a hot, dry summer.

The Forest Service says it is talking to the tribes.