Prior research suggests that Indigenous fire management buffers climate influences on wildfires, but it is unclear whether these benefits accrue across geographic scales. We use a network of 4824 fire-scarred trees in Southwest United States dry forests to analyze up to 400 years of fire-climate relationships at local, landscape, and regional scales for traditional territories of three different Indigenous cultures. Comparison of fire-year and prior climate conditions for periods of intensive cultural use and less-intensive use indicates that Indigenous fire management weakened fire-climate relationships at local and landscape scales. This effect did not scale up across the entire region because land use was spatially and temporally heterogeneous at that scale. Restoring or emulating Indigenous fire practices could buffer climate impacts at local scales but would need to be repeatedly implemented at broad scales for broader regional benefits.

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Community engagement is a central component of archaeology. Whether it is initiated through local, state, or national regulatory frameworks or as part of academic research, working with stakeholders is often structurally incorporated into project plans. However, what defines a community, and how this conception impacts archaeological practice is frequently not problematized. This conversation discusses the practice of archaeology as it engages with communities, and some of the difficulties encountered. If archaeology is going to be a holistically engaged discipline it must take seriously the complexities of communities and the impacts of its practice.

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