Community Land & Water CoalitionRegister

Community Land & Water Coalition presents

Fire on
the Land

The Wampanoag practice of landscape burning, and the meaning of fire in traditional culture.

When
Saturday, October 171:00–5:00 pm
Where
Plimoth Patuxet Museums137 Warren Avenue, Plymouth
Cost
Free and open to the publicAttend in person or on Zoom
Register — it's freeSee the agenda

CLWC is excited to present the second in a series about forests in Massachusetts. This year we are hosting an Indigenous-led conference with nine Indigenous speakers from Southeastern Massachusetts and the Islands.

Our first conference, in October 2025, was Forest Fires in Massachusetts: Myths and Realities.

Fire on the Land is facilitated and led by two Wampanoag Elders: Linda Coombs, of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe, educator, historian and author of Colonization and the Wampanoag Story; and Leslie Jonas, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and an Indigenous land and water conservationist and environmental activist.

Conference agenda

Saturday, October 17, 1:00–5:00 pm, at Plimoth Patuxet Museums and on Zoom.

  1. Opening prayer

  2. Panel introductions

  3. Fire video

    “Connecting with the Natural Elements of Earth, Wind, Water and Fire,” by Leslie Jonas.

  4. Panel 1: History of 17th-century burns

    Linda Coombs, Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe. Linda then introduces the second panel and Chief Mills.

  5. Panel 2: Golden Elders

    Chief Earl “Chiefie” Mills Jr., Tribal Chief (Chief Swift Eagle) of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, facilitates. The Elders share early stories about fire and growing up with cultural burns. 60 minutes, plus 30 minutes of Q&A.

    • Kristina Hook — Aquinnah Wampanoag elder who served nine years on the Tribal Council; culture bearer and forager
    • Anita “Mother Bear” Peters — Mashpee Wampanoag Elder Bear Clan Mother; traditional regalia maker, seed keeper and educator
    • Hazel Currence — Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribal Elder and vice chair of the Tribal Council

  6. Break — 20 minutes, with beverages and snacks

  7. Panel 3

  8. Closing circle

Speakers

Fire video and Panel 1

Portrait of Leslie Jonas

Leslie Jonas

Mashpee Wampanoag, Eel Clan Elder

Presents the fire video “Connecting with the Natural Elements of Earth, Wind, Water and Fire”

Leslie Jonas is a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. A former founding board officer of the Native Land Conservancy, she speaks and teaches on cultural burning, traditional ecological knowledge and environmental self-determination. Her work has centered on environmental activism, Indigenous land and water conservation, climate change adaptation, cultural preservation of lifeways, and environmental justice. For many years, Leslie has been researching and focusing on climate change from the Indigenous perspective and produces and directs educational video tools, such as a “Connecting with the Natural Elements” video series on Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, and a “Climate Change – Indigenous Voices” video for audiences across many disciplines. Leslie co-teaches and advises an Indigenous Environmental Planning course in the Department of Urban Studies & Planning at MIT.

Portrait of Linda Coombs

Linda Coombs

Aquinnah Wampanoag

Panel 1: History of 17th-century burns

Linda Coombs is a citizen of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe, and has spent 52 years as a museum educator, beginning at the Boston Children’s Museum, the Wampanoag Indigenous Program at Plimoth Plantation and the Aquinnah Cultural Center. She currently does museum consulting and public presentations. She is the author of Colonization and the Wampanoag Story. Her work focuses on accurate representation of Wampanoag history, culture and people.

Panel 2: Golden Elders

Chief Earl “Chiefie” Mills Jr. facilitates. The Elders share early stories about fire and growing up with cultural burns.

Portrait of Earl “Chiefie” Mills Jr.

Earl “Chiefie” Mills Jr.

Mashpee Wampanoag; Tribal Chief (Chief Swift Eagle)

Facilitates Panel 2

Earl “Chiefie” Mills Jr. studied plant and soil sciences at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and serves as Land Care Manager for the Native Land Conservancy. He has been a member of the American Indian Movement since 1973. “I want to move with the tribe into the future, but I want that future to be rooted in the traditions of our ancestors to the extent that we are able to do that. While there are some things we have lost, we’re looking to the spirits of our relatives to guide us to regain the important things both culturally, and spiritually to help the people into the future.”

Portrait of Kristina Hook

Kristina Hook

Aquinnah Wampanoag; Tribal Council member and elder

Kristina Hook served for 9 years on the Tribal Council of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and is a respected elder. Born and raised in Aquinnah, she is a culture bearer known for teaching traditional Wampanoag foraging and the wild foods of her ancestral homelands, and she appears regularly in educational projects and documentaries.

Portrait of Anita “Mother Bear” Peters

Anita “Mother Bear” Peters

Mashpee Wampanoag; Elder Bear Clan Mother

Anita “Mother Bear” Peters is the Elder Bear Clan Mother of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, a traditional regalia maker, seed keeper and educator. In 2024 the Tomaquag Museum gave her its Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring decades of work as a cultural guide and teacher of ancestral Wampanoag lifeways on Cape Cod.

Portrait of Hazel Currence

Hazel Currence

Herring Pond Wampanoag; Tribal Elder

Hazel Currence is a tribal Elder of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe. She is the vice chair of the tribal council, serves on the Genealogical Committee and has served on the Native Land Conservancy Board for many years. Inspired by her father, Maurice “Buster” Harding, a hunter and gardener, Hazel maintains a lifelong appreciation for the natural world. As her ancestral homelands were developed and damaged, she committed herself to land preservation for the next generation of Herring Pond people.

Panel 3

Portrait of Cassius Champlin Spears Sr.

Cassius Champlin Spears Sr.

Narragansett

Cassius Spears Sr. has spent his life preserving Narragansett culture across New England and beyond. He co-founded the Narragansett Food Sovereignty Initiative and runs Ashawaug Farm, practices ethnobotany and traditional home building, and served as cultural advisor on the PBS documentary We Shall Remain — After the Mayflower. He represented the Narragansett community at COP22 in Marrakech.

Portrait of Kta’n Weeden

Kta’n Weeden

Mashpee Wampanoag

Kta’n Weeden is a Natural Resource Fellow for the Mashpee Wampanoag Natural Resources Department. He is an aquatic ecologist and biology assistant who gained recognition for his environmental conservation work with the National Park Service. Kta’n’s ecological restoration work holds deep significance for him and the Wampanoag Nation as well as all of Cape Cod.

Portrait of Jason Steiding

Jason Steiding

Mashpee Wampanoag, Eagle Clan; Natural Resources Director

Jason Steiding is an Eagle Clan member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and Director of its Natural Resources Department — overseeing fish and wildlife management, habitat restoration, water resources and food sovereignty. He is a leading advocate for including traditional ecological knowledge in climate resilience planning and has been a keynote speaker at MIT and Harvard.

Register for Fire on the Land

The event is free and open to the public, and is hybrid on Zoom. Registrations are requested — registering tells us how many people to expect, and it is how we send you the Zoom link.

Register — it's free

Support the conference

Please consider sponsoring this event or donating to CLWC. Your support helps cover the honoraria for our valued speakers and conference expenses.

Ways to sponsor

$1,000
Lead sponsor. Thanked from the podium, and named first on the event page and in every email.
$500
Sustaining sponsor. Named on the event page and in our promotional emails.
$200
Sponsor. Your organization’s logo, or your own name, on the event page.
$100
Supporter. Your name listed on the event page.

Donate

To donate: ddock.co/RW9US7ZYR4

Donate to CLWC

Sponsor

To sponsor, write to rachel@communitylandandwater.org.

Email Rachel about sponsoring