[flute music]
[crackling fire]
My name is Kimberly Cunningham-Summerfield.
I am Cherokee and culturally Miwok.
I was raised around here and on Tuolumne Rancheria
and I am an Indian Cultural Park Interpretive Ranger.
[indistinct chatter]
WOMAN: With her colleagues,
Senior Cultural Demonstrator Julia Parker
and Cultural Demonstrator Phil Johnson,
Cunningham-Summerfield demonstrates the cultural practices
of the Yosemite Valley's original people, the Ahwahneechee.
They gather their materials locally, but for the past ten years
Cunningham-Summerfield and many others
have been concerned about the smothering blackberry
and encroaching trees strangling a wetland area she
and the Ahwahneechee ancestors used to gather native plants.
[Indistinct chatter]
WOMAN: The National Park Service has shared this concern
and the dream of restoring native plants to the meadow.
With support from the Yosemite Fund, this dream is coming true.
For years non-native Himalaya blackberry has spread
and dominated native vegetation.
Restoring native plants is a priority,
but what's the best way to get rid of blackberry?
My name is Brent Johnson. I work with Resources Management and Science
in Yosemite National Park and I'm a botanist.
One of the things that really inspired this whole project
in recent years is work that's been done by Yosemite Institute.
They started pulling blackberry out several years ago
and what we saw was when they removed the blackberry
you could see plants that had been buried underneath it for,
for several, maybe decades had, came back.
And you could see dogbane coming back the next year
and the blackberry not doing so well.
So it was really inspiring to see just by removing the blackberry
not having to do any seeding or restoration, other than
getting rid of the blackberry, we're getting really positive results.
WOMAN: With a grant from the Yosemite Fund, Johnson has designed an experiment
testing ways to eradicate Himalaya blackberry.
His comparative experiment includes
ripping up and burning plots of blackberry.
So what we've done is we put in 10 plots
that we can look at the native species when you burn an area
comparing it with areas where you mechanically removed blackberry
to see how fire will affect the native species
when underneath the blackberry.
WOMAN: On October 21, 2005, fire management scheduled
a prescribed burn in the overrun meadow.
A fire meant to accomplish many goals.
So one of the things that we're doing out here today
is reintroducing fire.
Something that was important to the American Indians
that lived here in the valley and for
hundreds if not thousands of years
they were maintaining these gathering areas
through the use of fire and once Euro-Americans arrived
we started putting out those fires.
Without fire things will overtake, overtake the meadows
like it has been and it may, still is today
so in the forest and the meadows, everything needs, needs fire
when it's done in a good way and in the right way.
WOMAN: It was an outstanding example of cooperation
between the local Native American tribes and a national park.
Cultural demonstrator Phil Johnson, Jay Johnson's son
agreed to ignite the prescribed fire by means of traditional techniques
instead of using modern drip torches and fusees,
they use friction and dry tinder.
[male tribal singing]
[female tribal singing]
WOMAN: Tribal members added to the ceremonial ignition fire
then invited the rest of the group to contribute.
[crackling fire]
WOMAN: The method honored their cultural traditions
and had an ecological benefit as well.
It kept drip torch fuel out of the wetland.
[indistinct chatter]
[crackling fire]
We were pleased and we were happy
that the Park Service did ask us if we wanted to be involved in this burn
and so we said yes and, and the burn was done
and then it was just unbelievable how, how things worked, worked so good.
I think everybody was pleased to see us do this.
WOMAN: The ceremonial prescribed fire helped bring people together
to restore natural and cultural resources in Yosemite Valley.
[Indistinct chatter]
I'd like to see the plants become healthy again,
the earth breathe, the water return,
the animals return, the memories and the practices return.
[flute music]