Salem, Ore. • Members of the Warm Springs Hotshots were getting ready to head home when the radio buzzed — a wildfire had started — and the elite crew launched into motion to tamp down the blaze in the sagebrush of eastern Oregon’s foothills.
The blur of activity in late June would be familiar to every wildland firefighter, but the Warm Springs crew is one of only seven Hotshot crews based on an American Indian reservation and overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. It’s also one of only four administered directly by an American Indian tribe.