When the Rainbow House Burns: What Wildfires Take From Indigenous Communities Beyond Buildings

The loss of Matilda Bob’s brightly painted “rainbow house” on the Colville Reservation is more than a personal tragedy. It is a window into what fire steals from tribal nations: not just structures, but the web of relationship between people, land, and spirit.

This year’s fires destroyed 43 homes and 100 outbuildings on the Colville Reservation alone. Yet the deeper wound is cultural. Timber that sustains tribal economies, waterways that carry salmon, and gathering grounds for traditional foods — all are threatened.

“What typically used to be like a two-month fire season for us when I first started fighting fire about 25 years ago — now that’s at least three months and sometimes longer,” said Cody Desautel, executive director of the Colville Tribes and a wildland fire expert.

For Indigenous communities, caring for land is a spiritual practice, not a resource transaction. When fire disrupts that reciprocity, it damages something sacred.