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Pictured above: The BIA Pine Ridge Agency hazardous fuels reduction module completes a thinning project on the Oglala Sioux Reservation. Photo taken on March 18, 2025, by BIA Pine Ridge Agency Fire Management Officer Tamara Randall.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Pine Ridge Agency has led efforts to engage the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota through hazardous fuels reduction projects. The hazardous fuels reduction projects on the reservation not only prevent wildfires but have helped elders stay warm in the cold months and provide community members essential items for traditional ceremonies.
In 2015, the Agency launched hazardous fuels thinning projects on the Reservations through the use of the Reserved Treaty Rights Lands program. The intent of the RTRL program is to provide tribes with opportunities to operate tribally determined projects on ancestral lands, regardless of ownership, to enhance the health and resiliency of tribal natural resources as it pertains to wildland fire risk reduction.
Thinning, a method used to treat hazardous fuels, involves skilled wildland firefighters who mechanically remove overgrown vegetation, both living and dead. This overgrowth poses a significant wildfire risk due to its flammability.
After completing a thinning project, firefighters often burn the remaining piles of slash and wood under close supervision. Tamara Randall, the BIA Pine Ridge Agency fire management officer, recognized that these projects could benefit the community beyond wildfire mitigation. She noted that too much wood was being burned that could be utilized by the Tribe.
Randall and Wildland Firefighter Justin Bauer, the agency’s hazardous fuels reduction module lead, began collaborating with the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Bauer contacted tribal leadership within natural resources, emergency management and land management who collectively brainstormed with Bauer on how to best make use of the slash and wood from the thinning projects.
As a result of these efforts, the Agency completed six thinning projects that fostered Oglala Sioux tribal engagement and supported elder needs and traditional ceremonies by providing wood to its tribal members.
Now, after a thinning project, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Emergency Management department collects the wood that would otherwise be burned. This wood is distributed as emergency firewood for tribal elders, who are the top priority. Remaining wood is then made available to community members for traditional ceremonies, such as sweats and sun dances.
Photo above: Wood piled and ready for distribution from the East Dam Thinning Project completed by the BIA Pine Ridge Agency. Photo taken February 2025 by Tamara Randall, BIA.
Oglala Sioux Tribal members hold sweats and sun dances, traditional ceremonies, during the summer that require one or more continuous campfire all day or just at night. These types of ceremonies can last up to six consecutive days with constant wood burning for heating rocks or preparing food.
Photo above: Wood processed from thinning projects for Oglala Sioux Tribal members to use as emergency heating during winter freeze events. Photo taken December 2024 by Oglala Sioux Tribe Emergency Management Director Steve Wilson.
As of March 2025, 18 cords of wood have been provided for the elderly, and 10 cords of wood have been provided for community members for traditional ceremonies.
Bauer’s hazardous fuels reduction module has completed 10 thinning projects totaling 160 acres with three thinning projects remaining.
“It’s a grounding source,” said Randall regarding tribal engagement. “I think sometimes we get caught up in the day to day [of working in wildland fire management]. We miss those grounding aspects of our culture. It’s a reminder that it’s still there.”
“It’s grounding for us to know that not only are we doing our job, but we’re giving back to the community. It gives us a bigger purpose.”
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