Sʔulíp 2025 Good Fire Gathering

Photo: Monique Wynecoop (BIA), Mary Huffman (TNC), and other Sʔulíp  participants gathered in STN's food sovereignty demonstration site to help with the remaining harvest and put the garden to bed after the summer season.  Photo by William Dennison-McCrea.

On a cool, crisp day in October 2025, participants of the Northeast Washington Indigenous Peoples Burning Network (NE WA IPBN) gathered together to share ideas, inspire action, and build relationships supporting the restoration of Indigenous fire practices.  Staff, citizens, and leadership from eleven different Tribal Nations, Inter-Tribal organizations (ITOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), allies and partners participated in the first annual Sʔulíp Good Fire Gathering.

The NE WA IPBN is designed to help support sacred relationships with fire and communicate the sacred subject of cultural burning between Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples (TIP), promote cultural burning activities, and safeguard TIP cultural burning practices rooted in Indigenous worldviews. The network’s planning Core Team includes volunteers from the Spokane Tribal Network (STN), Kalispel Tribe of Indians, Yakama Nation, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Conservation Northwest, (CNW), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and L.I.G.H.T. Foundation. Since its inception, the NE WA IPBN has participation from nineteen different entities, including Tribal Nations, ITOs/NGOs, and allies/partners from federal, state, or educational organizations.

The word Sʔulíp is the Spokane Salish language word for “flame.”  This term honors the origin of the NE WA IPBN, which began in the homeland territory of the Spokane Tribe of Indians.  During the 2025 Good Fire Gathering, participants discussed and identified the term as a new moniker for the NE WA IPBN, which reclaims the intent and values to restore cultural teachings - including Native language use - associated with cultural fire traditions throughout the Inland Northwest region. 

In 2024, the L.I.G.H.T. Foundation (LF) was invited to participate on the Core Team and between Jan-Feb of 2025, was asked to take on the roles of lead convener and facilitator for the network.  LF implemented a Free, Prior, Informed Consent process to protect the Indigenous Knowledges and Intellectual Properties (IK & IP) of TIP participants and began strategizing with the Core Team to develop a structured speaker series which provided opportunities for remote discussions and collaborations to strategizing plans and actions restoring traditional cultural burning practices.  In June of 2025, LF launched Embers, the monthly Sʔulíp newsletter, to share resources, news, and information to the network.  In September 2026, the Core Team planned the first in-person Good Fire Gathering of the network, which was held on the Spokane Reservation.

Hosted by Dr. Melodi Wynne and staff of the STN, the Gathering provided an opportunity, space, and time for participants to enjoy community, strengthen relationships, and share delicious, home-cooked meals together.  Recognizing that not everyone would be able to make the journey to the Gathering, the Core Team provided opportunities for participants to join and contribute remotely via Zoom during the 2-day event.  As a result of this coordinated effort, staff and/or citizens of two additional Tribal Nations were able to participate remotely with those attending in-person.

In addition to assisting STN staff with putting their food sovereignty demonstration garden to bed for the winter months, additional key activities were accomplished.  Participants supported STN in brainstorming issues and topics around cultural burning projects, completed a workgroup activity reviewing and discussing cultural burn plans, and even began the process of prioritizing goals for the network.

The goal-prioritization activity resulted with the following five overarching goals for Sʔulíp:

1. Contributing time, tools, and/or expertise to Indigenous-led action around cultural fire use and assisting TIP within the NE WA IPBN with needs around cultural fire as they arise (i.e., cultural burning practitioners, tools, coordination, communication, funding, etc.).
2. Developing a) a cultural fire burn plan template for TIP to utilize and adapt to their own needs and practices; and b) a best practices list of activities to consider when developing cultural fire burn plans.
3. Events and opportunities to connect TIP youth and Elders for intergenerational IK & IP exchange (i.e., sharing family, community and Tribal Stories about fire and cultural burning).
4. Indigenizing pre- and post-fire monitoring practices and developing a culturally responsive best practices list and/or resource guide for monitoring suppression and post-fire rehabilitation activities (i.e., Burned Area Emergency Response; monitoring of traditional plant foods, medicines, and materials; watershed/water quality monitoring, etc.)
5. Events and opportunities to share/teach about how cultural fire techniques benefit and aid traditional foods and plant materials (First Foods, subsistence foods, wildlife, medicines, weaving, basketry, dyes, etc.).

Next steps for Sʔulíp include scheduling out the 2026 Speaker Series, planning a 2026 spring or fall Good Fire Gathering, and strategizing objectives to address the five goals.  Additionally, LF will be building out a webpage for Sʔulíp which will contain additional information and resources for the NE WA IBPN.  TIP and other individuals interested in joining Sʔulíp or subscribing to the monthly Embers newsletter may fill out the Sʔulíp Interest & agreements Form to connect.