West by Southwest Ernie Bulow

CALL THEM FIRE WARRIORS CALL THEM FIRE WARRIORS

THE ORIGINS OF THE NATIVE HOT SHOT GROUPS THE ORIGINS OF THE NATIVE HOT SHOT GROUPS

To bring some relief from the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the much reviled Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. There was an Indian Division that eventually employed an astonishing 88 thousand Native Americans. The Zunis, largest of New Mexico Pueblos, only numbered between three and four thousand members at the time.

The CCC was composed of single young men who were located in camps in the West. The Indian Division was rather different than the national program in that Natives were not required to be single and did not have to be moved to primitive areas and housed in camps. Most reservations were already located in “primitive” locations. One of the special distinctions of the Indian Division was that the Department of Labor did not choose the participants but left the bureaucracy to local tribal leaders. This division differed in other ways: the participants were not limited to young men 18 to 25, and in 1940, the average age was 34 (there were

three men over 75); some other rules were bent to accommodate tribal needs and most groups were limited to members of a single tribe. The purpose of the CCC was conservation as the name states. These men made and stabilized trails in the back country, built check dams against erosion, fixed and stabilized roads, erected fences and fire towers, and fought fires. The program came to an end with WWII in 1942. But the need for these services did not just go away. An interesting note: while interviewing Code Talkers, some forty years ago, it came out that many Navajos recruited late in the war skipped basic training. They were excellent shots because they grew up hunting, and they were already in excellent condition because of the rigors of reservation life. Much the same was true of the Indian firefighters. No boot camp needed. After the war ended, the fire fighting aspect of these crews fell to Forestry and TEXAS CANYON FIREFIGHTERS. SEATED UNKOWN,TOM TUCSON, HUGO SANCHEZ. the Department of Indian Affairs and its KNEELING-UNKNOWN , GEORGE CHEECHEE, LEE TUCSON, STEVEN GIA. STANDING- devision of Wildland Fire Management. AUGUSTINE PINTO, UNKNOWN, CURTIS KUKATE, ED LASILOO, HERMAN CHIMONI. There is record of a Hopi firefighting (UNKNOWNS - JOE QUAMPEHON AND CELESTINE NASTACIO) group as early as 1949, but they joined a Mescalero Apache crew known as the “Red Hats” in 1948 to fight the fire known as the Capitan Gap Fire. As often happens with popular stories HOT FOOT TEDDY CONRAD LESARRLEY WITH CELESTINE NASTACIO

Ernie Bulow

West by Southwest

by Ernie Bulow

in the public domain, the tale of Smokey Bear [no “the” in the name] is confusing and contradictory. Borrowing the “cute animal” idea from Disney, Smokey Bear was born in 1944, but only as an image used on educational material and posters. The actual bear was born in 1950.

A black bear cub about three months old got lost in the New Mexico Fire and climbed a tree, only to be badly burned. This marriage of symbol and baby bear didn’t happen until the Apache Red Hats picked him up and passed him to a Santa Fe vet for treatment. They called him Hotfood Teddy. Amazing how facts and dates tend to have a life of their own.

The next group of elite fire fighters to grab the story was the Taos Pueblo Snowballs, also working the Capitan Fire. Now the story says they found

Teddy and the baby bear when it was only one month old.

At any rate, the existence of the Hopi, Taos, and Apache firefighting crews is solidly documented after 1950. In 1951 the Army Corpse of Engineers tasked Dick Dorn to either create or expand a group know as the Texas Canyon Hotshots. Rather than recruit locals, Dorn chose a group of Zuni Indians. I can find no record beyond those spare facts. Superintendent Dorn did not pick the Zunis out of thin air. Obviously the Zuni firefighters had already established themselves and drawn his attention.

A 1956 newspaper article outlined their - ernie@buffalomedicine.com

formation. In 1951 Governor Conrad Lesarrley recruited 150 Zuni men between 18 and 60 with good eyesight. The list of unit leaders is a who’s who of Zuni leaders including Tom Paquin, Casa Appa, Bob Walela [rumored to have done inlay versions of the Forest Service logo] Pat Tsethlikai, Leo Quetawki, Clarence HELMETS OF SOME NATIVE FIREFIGHTING GROUPS Calavaza, Sol Ondelacy, and Scotty Kaskala among others. One clarification is important. The Zuni Hot Shots were not a single crew, but sixtyone crews of twenty-five men each. The most curious item in the article is the claim that a supervisor from the Albuquerque office, J. Monahan, “sent an artist to Zuni to make a drawing of the Knife Wing Bird to be used on the silver helmets.” Obviously the Zunis were painting their own helmets. This was the first group of Native firefighters to sport the name Hot Shots. The men chosen were not just good at their jobs, they were the elite. They continued to fight fires in California under that name until 1977. It seems that there was a curious down side to their fame. They were so good at what they did they were given full-time jobs in California. A few of the men pretty much stayed on the West Coast permanently. Oqueen Neese and Steven Gia were jewelers of the highest order and their work—and their families—were put on hold. Joe Tsabetsaye Jr. became a heavy equipment operator and never returned to Zuni. At the present time, there are more than 100 Hot Shot groups, but for many years the Zunis were the only group so designated. One thing is universally agreed on: the Indian Hot Shot crews are the best of the best, largely due to their fearless approach to the work, as well as their exceptional skills.

FUN FACT: Today American Indian Tribes hold the largest private source of commercial timber in the United States. Navajos alone have seventeen million acres; 5.8 of that is commercial.