Navajo Scouts Battle Fires and Landslides in Southern California

In the midst of devastating wildfires in Southern California, a dedicated team from the Navajo Nation has been working relentlessly to help restore order and safety. The Navajo Scouts have been on the front lines, facing harsh conditions to aid communities affected by the fires.

For eight consecutive days, the 23-member crew has been engaged in strenuous efforts to combat the Eaton Fire near Los Angeles. Their mission has been to clear a road blocked by a landslide near Altadena, enabling vehicle access, and to assess damage to structures on the mountain.

This team journeyed from their base at Fort Defiance, located on the Arizona-New Mexico border, to join the battle against the wildfires. These fires have claimed at least 27 lives, destroyed over 12,000 structures, and resulted in evacuation orders for more than 80,000 people. The Navajo Scouts are among several Native American tribal teams and Bureau of Indian Affairs units mobilized to tackle the blazes.

The Navajo Scouts’ “initial attack” crew, which includes elite hotshot-certified members, have been pivotal in tackling landslides and extinguishing residual fires. “We all feel like we’re giving back to the people,” expressed Brian Billie, an emergency coordinator for the team. “Just talking to the locals, some of them have been here ever since childhood and they lost their homes.”

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren commended the crew, noting their invaluable role in assisting Los Angeles residents, including many from the Navajo community. “Let us send them our heartfelt wishes for protection, so that they may return home safely,” he shared on the social platform X.

In addition to the firefighting efforts, eleven electricians from the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority have been deployed to aid in wildfire recovery. These journeymen are skilled in both new construction and working on “hot” lines.

This deployment follows a history of mutual support between Los Angeles and the Navajo Nation. In recent years, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power assisted in bringing electricity to approximately 170 Navajo households previously without power. Deenise Becenti, a spokesperson for the Navajo utility, highlighted the reciprocal nature of this aid. “There’s a deep sense of pride not only for our utility employees here but people throughout the Navajo Nation … in sending firefighters and now utility workers to help an area that’s been just hit severely by a force of nature,” she said.

The Navajo Nation, which is comparable in size to West Virginia, has over 10,400 families living without electricity, a remnant of the incomplete rural electrification efforts of the 1930s. Becenti emphasized the significance of the Los Angeles mission, marking it as the first major mutual aid project undertaken by the tribal utility beyond their lands.