In an unprecedented step, the Fourth National Climate Assessment incorporates the expertise and perspectives of Indigenous experts in climate and environmental science, environmental justice, and other disciplines. “This is the first time that the National Climate Assessment has integrated the impacts and actions of Indigenous peoples across the entire report,” says Rachael Novak, Navajo, the coordinating lead author for Chapter 15, “Tribes and Indigenous Peoples.”
Christopher Caldwell, Menominee, is the director of the Sustainable Development Institute at the College of Menominee Nation in Wisconsin and a contributor who was asked to participate in multiple sections: Chapter 18 (“Northeast”) and Chapter 21 (“Midwest”). “When the next assessment is in development, it will be interesting to see how Indigenous contributions to this one advance integrating the Indigenous perspective,” he says.
Conducted by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), the report touches on “the human welfare, societal, and environmental elements of climate change and variability for 10 regions and 16 national topics.” The authors of the assessment, issued last November, write that they directed attention to “observed and projected risks, impacts, consideration of risk reduction, and implications under different mitigation pathways.” The report also provides examples of how communities are working to reduce risks associated with climate change, increase resilience, and improve livelihoods. In one case, more than 800 actions taken by Indigenous communities were included in an interactive mapping application.
Thinking about what the impacts are or could be and developing plans to carry out or implement programs can help tribal communities avoid or at least be prepared for future impacts. Rachael Novak notes that tribal preparations for climate change resemble Navajo teachings. “It’s like what I learned from our Diné thought process — Nitsáhákees (Thinking), Nahat’á (Planning), Iiná (Living), and Sihasin (Reflection),” she says.
Raising Native Voices
Including Indigenous technical experts helps put the unique issues tribal communities face on the record. And Caldwell thinks the presence of Native voices can bring more benefits. “Having opportunities for those scientists to bring in their understandings from the community is a form of advocacy,” he says. “Being part of these reports is getting in the door, getting to know the right people, and educating them to know whom to approach to make connections with tribes. You can see an advocacy aspect behind the scenes working to get Indigenous peoples into positions to help influence documents that create policy.”
That visibility and advocacy are important because tribal communities are particularly vulnerable to climate change. “Many Indigenous peoples have lived in particular areas for hundreds if not thousands of years, and their cultures, spiritual practices, and economies have evolved to be adaptive to local seasonal and interannual environmental changes,” the report says. “Lands, waters, and other natural resources of Indigenous peoples hold sacred cultural significance; they also play a principal role in ensuring the viability of these communities’ economies and livelihoods.” Livelihoods of many tribal members are based on subsistence — and the animals, fish, and plants they depend on to survive are under threat.
Novak, who heads the Tribal Resilience Program at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, says that her job focuses on “helping federally recognized tribes pursue resilience planning and preparedness for extreme events and harmful environmental trends such as flooding, drought, permafrost melt, global change–type wildfires, sea-level rise, and coastal storm surge.” Given that role, USGCRP requested that she take the federal lead in coordinating a team of seven scientists, environmental justice scholars, and other experts.
Indigenous scholar, environmental activist, and Michigan State University professor Kyle Powys Whyte, Citizen Potawatomi Nation, also helped ensure that the needs and interests of Native communities were acknowledged in the assessment. “Led by Shannon McNeeley, I worked on an aspect that I think was an achievement for this climate assessment,” Whyte says, “to develop an actual set of definitions for the different concepts related to Indigenous peoples.” If a report author referred to the term “subsistence,” it is used appropriately everywhere.
Whyte also worked to ensure that all Indigenous peoples were included. “So many of the solutions that tribes have been exploring don’t pertain to state-recognized tribes or unrecognized tribes,” says Whyte, who served on an advisory committee on climate change and natural resource science in the Obama administration. “Much of the funding and support for tribes for climate change was coming from the federal government; however, they were really focused on federally recognized tribes.”
Key Findings
Major points in the assessment include how federal oversight of natural resource management on tribal lands could “hinder growth in tribal and individual natural resource–based business enterprises, because tribes lack the autonomy to determine their own property rights and related institutions.” The authors also identified federal Indian policies as a factor in tribal adaptation strategies. The situation is more precarious for non-federally recognized tribes, as the report notes that they are unable to apply for federal funding to adapt to a changing climate.
The report also found that overall limits to funding create barriers to planning and implementation of tribal climate programs, while conversely, increased funding could create opportunities to pursue programs. Funding resources can help tribes develop plans. Thinking about what the impacts are or could be and developing plans to carry out or implement programs can help tribal communities avoid or at least be prepared for future impacts. Novak notes that tribal preparations for climate change resemble Navajo teachings. “It’s like what I learned from our Diné thought process — Nitsáhákees (Thinking), Nahat’á (Planning), Iiná (Living), and Sihasin (Reflection),” she says.
Novak, who has a bachelor’s in environmental science and a master’s in geosciences with an emphasis in climate science and paleoclimatology, identifies some tactics tribes could use to leverage scarce funds — or in the case of non-federally recognized tribes, no funds. “There are different resources that tribes may be eligible for at the tribal, state, federal, university, private, or non-governmental level,” she says. “It’s also important that tribes are at the table for intergovernmental efforts, since tribal communities may be uniquely, and disproportionately, affected and often have distinct knowledge about climate impacts and strategies for adaptation.” Novak also adds that planning can help tribes and their partners look for solutions and strategies before the need arises.
“You can’t solve climate change unless tribes are empowered to support their economies on their own lands in the ways that they choose, and unless tribes can pursue adaptation strategies freely without being encumbered by jurisdictional and bureaucratic issues.” — Kyle Powys Whyte
Empowering Change
Whyte agrees that tribal sovereignty and self-determination on tribal lands are key in caring for land and tackling climate change. “You can’t solve climate change unless tribes are empowered to support their economies on their own lands in the ways that they choose, and unless tribes can pursue adaptation strategies freely without being encumbered by jurisdictional and bureaucratic issues,” he says. “You can’t solve climate change without solving colonialism.”
Whyte also stresses the importance of understanding the relationships Native peoples have with their traditions, their local climates, and their health. “If a change in their climate makes it harder for people to practice a certain tradition that’s healthy, it’s probably not accidental that that one change is putting the tradition in peril, meaning it’s a larger issue than just the climate.”
Beyond the opportunity to get the wider community of climate scientists thinking about Indigenous perspectives on these issues, the participation of Native scientists in the assessment could bring additional benefits. “It’s an opportunity to get in at the beginning stages of the discussion to develop tools and resources that are more applicable in tribal situations,” explains Caldwell. “This report is going to be referenced by different agencies, scientists, and institutions, and that will impact how policies and funding initiatives are developed.”
