Learn about how Indigenous communities are affected by and respond to climate change both individually and collectively.
Edited by Alefiya Presswala
Earth’s climate has been changing for many centuries, and for the most part, these changes have been manageable for America’s diverse peoples. As the global climate crisis worsens, however, some native communities have been disproportionately affected by the symptoms of rising sea levels, excessive droughts, and natural disasters. Though the climate crisis is primarily due to major industries’ lack of environmentally friendly production and distribution (i.e. the fast fashion and oil industries), individual tribes across the US are taking it in their own hands to combat the climate crisis. Native American tribes are some of the most vulnerable people in terms of climate. With increased pollution, bodies of water have become less habitable for fish, a staple in Indigenous diet and culture. “We’re salmon people … That’s how we survive,” says Ryan Reed, tribal member of the Karuk and Yurok tribe. “... a lack of fish is coming in. That’s just the frontline of everyday life. I don’t have to look into any science book to understand what is exactly going on around me.” The Swinomish tribe, in what is now Washington state, fish for salmon and shellfish for dietary and cultural reasons. At the beginning of each fishing season, a ceremony is held to honor the return of the migratory species, but in recent years, there have been less fish to celebrate. Due to vanishing habitats and global water warming, tribal members are forced to turn to nontraditional methods of feeding the hundreds of people who attend the ceremony to honor the salmon. “We don't have that abundance anymore,” says Lorraine Loomis, a tribal elder. “To get ceremonial fish, we buy it and freeze it.” Living on an island during a time of rising sea levels and more frequent natural disasters makes the Swinomish people especially vulnerable to climate change. The tribe, however, has found ways to support the health of their ecosystems. One part of this climate plan is looking towards the future and turning to other marine creatures for food–like geoduck and sea cucumbers–so that the salmon population is given time to recover. By avoiding clams and oysters, as well, shellfish are also able to naturally increase in the area without the threat of human predators. The tribe is making sure that tradition and culture can be sustained for generations, even if that means turning to new alternatives in this one. It could take 90 years for the salmon populations to get back to where they were, and for fish and shellfish to be abundant enough to support entire communities, but the climate plan that the Swinomish tribe pioneered has been adopted in 50 other Native American communities. Tribes in the Southwest are facing a similar issue with food accessibility. Lower crop yield has occurred over the past few years caused by water shortages. With warmer atmospheric temperatures, snowfall has turned into rainfall, meaning less snow buildup in the Rocky Mountains. Less snow in the mountains means less water flowing into streams during the warmer months and less water for communities in the region. The cycle is endless, and many communities do not have the option of migrating to different areas, nor should tribes with only positive contributions to the environment be expected to leave their ancestral lands. The climate crisis has shown how vulnerable Indigenous peoples are to an unstable environment, despite most communities’ respect for nature and strategic adaptation to natural changes. While recognizing how vulnerable tribes are to a changing climate, Dominique M. David-Chavez, a research scientist, explains how Indigenous groups have actually been adapting to a changing environment for centuries. As climate change brings more extreme weather like hurricanes, many architects are turning to Native architectural practices to combat worsening hurricane seasons in the Caribbean. “Our Indigenous architectural practices really reflected where to orient your home, what direction in terms of wind, and what types of materials to gather, what type of year to gather those materials, to the point where people were observing that some of the structures that had used Indigenous architectural techniques were stronger withstanding the hurricane force winds,” says David-Chavez. Global climate change may be in the hands of massive corporations and entire governments, but that does not mean that the environmental work of this country’s native peoples is inconsequential. Indigenous tribes’ action plans for dealing with a changing climate are not only worthy of the public’s attention, but should be amplified and adopted by every community. Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi1Tgz65wtE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlGnve1cjOY https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/climate-change.html https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/native-american-communities-climate-change/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-will-native-americans-southwest-adapt-serious-impacts-climate-change-180958172/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/11/24/native-americans-climate-change-swinomish/?arc404=true
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