Typical IBPN activities include community- and family-based burning, fire training that supports Indigenous cultural burning, culturally centered fire planning, Indigenous-led research, and connecting elders and youth to prepare the next generation of cultural fire practitioners. Members also come together, virtually or in person, to take part in working groups to explore and address topics of shared interest, such as building a cultural burn program or understanding the Reserved Treaty Rights Lands Program.
The IPBN also works to empower agencies to embrace Indigenous cultural burning. Many agency partners are unaware that our fire cultures still exist. Through the IPBN support network, the activities in our communities combine to encourage the state and federal agencies that regulate how Native Americans can and cannot use fire to make room for Indigenous fire cultures. We are eager for our sacred relationships with fire and our sophisticated fire practices to be welcomed so that we can help bring fire back into balance across the United States.