ICON 8110 students visit Kituwah, the Cherokee Mother Town, in April with EBCI Forest Manager Josh Parris (Image: Laura German)
By Laura German
During this academic year, two ICON cohorts worked in partnership with the Natural Resources Department (NRD) of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) to produce scientific products of interest to the Tribe. In the fall, a group of five students (Ravneet Kaur, Kristie Gill, Monika Giri, Kaili Gregory and Nancee Uniyal) worked under the guidance of Tommy Cabe and Josh Parris (NRD) and in consultation with two EBCI elders with deep knowledge of plant relatives (Onita Bush and Tyson Sampson) to conduct a literature review of the fire ecology of plants with cultural significance to the EBCI. The review, submitted to Ecology & Society, helps to identify gaps in the scientific literature and to serve as an input to EBCI-led cultural burning efforts to sustain populations of these plant relatives into the future. Co-instructors Laura German and Doug Aubrey (fire ecologist with the Savannah River Ecology Lab and Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources) helped to anchor the project in the ongoing CICR-EBCI partnership and relevant literatures.
In Spring 2025, a new cohort (Hannah Boone, Bhavya Iyer, Eileen Joseph, Alejandro Najera Medellin, Aharna Sarkar, Dominique Valentine and Ummuqulthum Usman) worked with Cabe and Parris to define the project for Fall 2025 through what’s known as the “Bridge Course” (ICON 8110). Through bi-weekly meetings with partners, a field trip to Cherokee, and indirect exchanges with the Earth Keepers (a small group of elders constituted to guide the EBCI NRD), partners have agreed on the scope of the new project. The goal of the project will be to conduct background research on what has been written, said, or represented about EBCI cultural burning and the ecological consequences of the suppression of cultural burning, and synthesize this information for the Tribe.
While cultural burning has long been a fundamental practice of the EBCI, serving ecological, cultural, and spiritual functions that sustain land and people, EBCI partners have expressed concern over the loss of cultural knowledge related to land relations and cultural burning. While some of that knowledge still resides within the memories and lived experiences of community members, additional sources like historical accounts, recorded interviews, historical photographs, and paleoecological accounts can provide valuable insights into historical practices and their ecological significance. This cohort will work with co-instructors Laura German and Joe O’Brien (fire ecologist with the USDA Forest Service) to locate and review these sources and summarize what can be learned from them.