California has spent $24 million in fire-management funds on drum circles and "indigenous fire rituals"

You may think you need water and hoses to fight fires.

But in California, they do things (D)ifferently.

Drum circles, indigenous fire rituals, and pagan animistic worship of plant and animal ancestors.

And here I thought they should just keep the reservoirs filled!

Here's Chris Rufo and City-Journal:

Since 2023, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CAL FIRE, has awarded $24 million to tribal groups and other nonprofits as part of its 'Tribal Wildfire Resilience' program. The man effectively overseeing the program, Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, believes that California was founded on a 'state-sanctioned policy of genocide" and that the state has pursued "decades of land dispossession, discrimination, and disconnection.' The Newsom administration, he said, was making progress in returning the land to the "leadership of California Native American tribes."

As part of this commitment to 'cultural burning,' California has created separate fire-certification processes for nontribal and tribal populations. White, black, Latino, and Asian fire bosses must receive technical certifications, including a 40-hour burn-boss course and, in some cases, a federal certificate. 'Cultural fire practitioners,' by contrast, are certified through simple tribal recognition that a person has 'substantial experience' burning for cultural purposes.

Fire chiefs in California have to have real certifications and real training and take real courses. Unless you're an Indian chief.

Then you can do a taxpayer-funded "cultural burning" practice approved by the tribe and you're good to go! Then you get to sit in a drum circle and asking your "animal ancestors."

The 'cultural burns' themselves follow various rituals. Some begin with drumming, sage burning, and a prayer. Attendees sometimes go around in a circle, introducing themselves to the land. In the words of Ron Goode, chief of the North Fork Mono Tribe, the land listens to the incantations, and the intention is 'to make sure that everything on the landscape — Mother Earth, Creator, everybody — understands why we're there and what we're there for.'

I believe it would be prudent to include a rain dance as part of the training, in case the fires get out of hand!

In reality, it's $24 million spent on nothing.

Well, they did spend it on something, just not anything useful to taxpayers.

One of the native fire chiefs interviewed by City-Journal said the burns don't do much to clear dead brush, so they aren't useful for stopping future fires.

In 2022, California projected that tribes, 'cultural fire practitioners,' and others would conduct 25,000 acres of prescribed burning annually by 2025. The state has not released any data on the tribes' progress, and some tribal leaders apparently insist on keeping the fires small. As Ron Goode explained, 'We never burn anything bigger than a big beaver hut.'

Something tells me that the 25,000 acres remains largely untouched.

(Unless a legit California wildfire got to it, of course.)