PHOTOS: For the first time in generations, fire will return to Wisconsin Point — not as a wildfire, but as a pathway to renewal. The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the Superior Fire Department this month are planning a cultural prescribed burn on the spit of land jutting out into Lake Superior.
Called Ishkode, which means “good fire” in Ojibwe, the burn will clear invasive species, return nutrients to the soil and help native plants thrive while honoring the sacred relationship between the Ojibwe people and the land. “People have populated the point for thousands of years,” said Vern Northrup, a Fond du Lac Band elder and firekeeper. “They used fire to gather. They used it for hunting. It was always used on the point up until about the 1920s, when all fire became ‘bad.’” Northrup, who spent 24 years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a fire operation specialist, along with Alex Mehne, the forestry supervisor for the Fond du Lac Band, and Superior Fire Chief Camron Vollbrecht joined WPR’s Robin Washington on “Morning Edition” to talk about the burn.
