Local professor leads special edition on Indigenous fire knowledge

In a landmark contribution to Indigenous scholarship, Paulette Steeves has edited the December 2025 special edition of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Algoma U professor Paulette Steeves has been named the “Special Edition Editor” for the December 2025 edition of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal.

This special edition, called “Pyroepistomology: Reclaiming Knowledge, Histories, Lands, Relations,” features a piece by Steeves, which “frames the collection with a powerful exploration of how Indigenous fire knowledge, land stewardship practices, and interconnected histories can reshape contemporary understandings of science, culture, and memory,” says a news release issued today.

“Indigenous fire knowledge is not only about the past; it is a living system of relationships, responsibilities, and teachings that continue to guide how we care for land and one another,” Steeves in the news release.

“This special issue centres Indigenous epistemologies as essential to confronting ongoing ecological crises and to restoring respectful, reciprocal relationships with place.”

For more information, see the press release below. 

Paulette Steeves (Cree-Métis), Professor of Geography, Geology, and Land Stewardship at Algoma University and Tier II Canada Research Chair in Indigenous History, Healing and Reconciliation, served as the invited Special Edition Editor for the December 2025 issue of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal (AICRJ).

The special edition, titled “Pyroepistomology: Reclaiming Knowledge, Histories, Lands, Relations,” features Steeves as the author of the issue’s introduction.

Her piece frames the collection with a powerful exploration of how Indigenous fire knowledge, land stewardship practices, and interconnected histories can reshape contemporary understandings of science, culture, and memory.

“Indigenous fire knowledge is not only about the past; it is a living system of relationships, responsibilities, and teachings that continue to guide how we care for land and one another,” said Steeves.

“This special issue centres Indigenous epistemologies as essential to confronting ongoing ecological crises and to restoring respectful, reciprocal relationships with place.”

As a leading scholar in Indigenous archaeology and decolonial research, Steeves’s work continues to advance Indigenous-centered methodologies while challenging long-standing colonial narratives within archaeology and anthropology. Her research program includes creating comprehensive databases of Pleistocene archaeology sites in the Americas and reframing deep Indigenous histories through Indigenous knowledge systems. 

Through this special edition, Steeves highlights the resilience of Indigenous knowledge systems and the crucial importance of reclaiming relationships with land, history, and community. The American Indian Culture and Research Journal is a longstanding, peer-reviewed publication dedicated to high-quality scholarship in American Indian and Indigenous studies.

The December 2025 special edition is available through UCLA’s open-access platform linked here.

To learn more about Steeves’ work, visit her website.

To learn more about the Geography, Geology and Land Stewardship program at Algoma U, click here.