Tribal Profiles, Fact Sheets and Climate Planning Tools

Increasingly accessible resources in the Arctic region have caught the imagination of potential developers. For instance, exploration geologists believe the North Slope of Alaska and the seas around it hold some of the largest remaining deposits of oil, gas, and coal in the United States. Additionally, the region provides habitat for a diverse array of fish, wildlife, and plant resources. A range of individuals and companies are eager to build businesses based on the region’s rich resources. The region has also caught the attention of environmental stewards and groups that monitor climate conditions and impacts. As temperatures rise, melting permafrost endangers infrastructure and modifies landscapes, reduced sea ice necessitates new approaches for subsistence hunters, and increased coastal erosion reduces the expanse of safe, solid land along coasts. To balance conflicting goals of resource development and climate resilience, decision makers need solid scientific information and an informed vision of potential future conditions in the region. In order to understand the potential costs and benefits of developing Arctic resources in a safe and sustainable manner—and to help ensure that residents and ecosystems in the region can adapt as conditions change—federal, state, local, and Native entities in Alaska formed the North Slope Science Initiative (NSSI). The group is authorized to serve as an inter-governmental forum for science collaboration through the Energy Policy Act of 2005. To produce science-based guidance for development or energy resources in the region, NSSI took up the idea of developing detailed scenarios—plausible stories about how the future might unfold—to describe how resource development could occur and what monitoring efforts would be useful to help protect people and the environment as conditions change.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Biodiversity Conservation, Assessment and Planning, Monitoring, Resource Development, Permafrost Melt, Infrastructure

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) are made up of the Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d’Oreilles Tribes. Together, their aboriginal territories include over 20 million acres in western Montana, northern Idaho, and southern Canadian provinces. Today the reservation of the CSKT is just 1.3 million acres along the Flathead River in western Montana. The land currently supports a thriving community that has been recognized as a model of a self-sufficient sovereign nation. However, climate impacts threaten the diverse range of ecosystems on the reservation and throughout their homelands. For Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d’Oreilles peoples, these impacts have serious ramifications for their cultural, material, and spiritual well-being. Observed and expected changes that will impact the CSKT include increasing temperatures, lower summer stream flow, earlier and greater spring runoff, shifts in species ranges, increased likelihood of severe wildfires, and increased spread of invasive species. As the CSKT began recognizing the growing threats climate change represents to their traditions and livelihoods, they looked to their peoples’ knowledge and ability to overcome challenges. They drew heavily on the knowledge of tribal elders to ensure that Traditional Knowledges (TKs) would be integrated into their adaptation planning, and that cultural priorities would inform all aspects of their path forward. For example, elders’ observations about changes in plant availability and location are helping the CSKT prepare for future reductions in resource availability. Ultimately, the tribes integrated TKs with other research and analysis of community impacts to develop a comprehensive Climate Change Strategic Plan. The final plan they developed addresses climate impacts and vulnerabilities in nine categories of tribal life: forestry, land, fish, wildlife, water, air, infrastructure, people, and culture.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Climate Change, Assessment and Planning, Traditional Knowledge, Resource Management, Sovereignty

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe resides on the northeastern portion of the Olympic Peninsula in northwestern Washington. The Tribe is made up of nearly 600 members, with close to 300 living in the area. Historically, the Jamestown S’Klallam have adapted to both climatic changes as well as radical cultural changes brought on by colonization. In more recent years, the Tribe has identified climate change as a major concern for their community. To better understand the challenges facing the Tribe, and to promote the continued resiliency of their community, the Tribe prepared a Climate Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan. To develop the Plan, the Tribe worked with support from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) grant, and in partnership with Adaptation International, a climate change consulting firm, and Washington Sea Grant, a collaborative project between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Washington. The Plan focuses on identifying community adaptation priorities and concerns, and creating a course of action to address them.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Climate Change, Coastal Resilience, Sea Level Rise, Adaptation

Alaska’s western coast has seen substantial changes in recent years. During 2013, the Village of Shishmaref saw 60 feet of shoreline vanish in a single storm. Over a five-year period, storms also removed 30 feet of shoreline at an ancient Yup’ik village near Quinhagak, increasing the urgency of archaeologists and the community to protect this historic site. And recently, storm surges have flooded portions of the town of Golovin so frequently that residents made a decision to relocate some of their essential infrastructure to higher ground. These events illustrate the vulnerability of western Alaska’s coastal communities and cultural resources to rising seas and eroding coastlines. As the region warms—and sea ice and land-fast ice that once protected coastlines during extreme storms disappears—the impacts of coastal erosion will only increase. Issues of coastal change in the region fall within the purview of the Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC). The LCC is one of 22 regional efforts across the United States launched to better integrate science and management in addressing climate change and other landscape-scale issues. The Western Alaska LCC is governed by a partnership of 14 state, federal, and tribal organizations with input from academia, agencies, non-profit organizations, consulting firms, and traditional knowledge experts. In 2012, the Western Alaska LCC co-hosted a coastal hazards workshop with the Alaska Ocean Observing System and the Alaska Climate Science Center. At the workshop, a broad group of stakeholders identified their needs for information and tools that would help them understand and forecast how the coast is changing. To date, the LCC has sponsored or co-sponsored 17 projects to address recommendations offered by workshop participants.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Climate Change, Community Health, Social Equity, Coast Erosion, Relocation

Increasingly, evidence suggests that warmer ocean temperatures associated with climate change have contributed to worldwide increases in the duration, frequency, and geographical distribution of harmful algal blooms (HABs). As ocean temperatures rise, increases in HAB outbreaks are expected to worsen over the next few decades. In response, researchers, shellfish growers, and managers must begin to investigate adaptation strategies that can increase their resilience and their capacity to endure climate-driven changes in HAB events. Although the State of Alaska regularly tests commercial shellfisheries for toxins, they do not test recreational and subsistence shellfisheries. In October 2013—after two cases of paralytic shellfish poisoning in Sitka—regional tribal communities formed the Southeast Alaska Tribal Toxins (SEATT) partnership to combat the risks of HABs to subsistence shellfish harvesters. The SEATT partnership seeks to bring tribes in southeastern Alaska together to assess the beaches and shellfish that the state cannot test, increasing access to subsistence resources for tribal members. To date, 11 of the 17 Tribal Nations located in southeast Alaska have joined the partnership. Training and technical assistance for the SEATT partnership is provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Marine Biotoxin Programs in Seattle, Washington, and Charleston, South Carolina.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Climate Change, Food Safety, Human Health, Ocean Health, Assessment and Planning, Fisheries and Coastal Communities

Climate change poses a threat to the traditional livelihoods and the sustainably managed forestlands of the Menominee Nation. However, climate change also presents an opportunity—a chance to apply indigenous knowledge to adapt and sustain native communities, and for the Menominee Nation to share its understandings with others seeking to address this global issue. The Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) at the College of Menominee Nation works with both tribes and non-tribal communities on issues related to sustainability. The Institute combines Western-style research methods with indigenous knowledge to develop a variety of research projects and outreach initiatives, with a focus on the inclusion and development of students—both from indigenous and other communities—to prepare the next generation of scientists and practitioners to become responsible community members. An indigenous-based theoretical model of sustainability was developed through a collaborative approach by tribal leaders, who were interested in expanding on the Menominee's experience in sustainable forestry; through this effort, the Sustainable Development Institute was founded at the College of Menominee Nation to apply the model. The SDI model illustrates six dimensions of community life that tribal leaders highlight as part of the Menominee story: (1) land and sovereignty; (2) natural environment; (3) institutions; (4) technology; (5) economics; and (6) human perception, activity, and behavior.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Climate Change, Forest Management, Assessment and Planning, Capacity Building, Indigenous Knowledge

As emissions of heat-trapping bases accumulate in our atmosphere, Earth's polar regions are warming more quickly than at lower latitudes. The rapid environmental changes that result from this warming can have a significant impact on the physical and mental health of rural Alaskans: unpredictable weather and changes in the seasons have made harvesting food more difficult, hazardous, and stressful. The climate-related challenge faced by Alaska’s tribal health system is to recognize new health stressors and community vulnerabilities, and then find healthy adaptation strategies in an increasingly uncertain future. Since 1997, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) has operated a non-profit, statewide system of health services for more than 143,000 Alaska Native Villages and Native American Tribes. In 2009, ANTHC established the Center for Climate and Health to help people understand climate change impacts on community health and work to address them. To help raise awareness about the connections between climate change and community health, ANTHC uses a variety of communication and education products including ClimeMap, The LEO Network, and an e-journal which provides weekly access to other map tools, updates, assessments, and bulletins.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Climate Change, Human Health, Community Health, Adaptation Strategies

Members of the Karuk Tribe in northern California maintain that the age-old tradition of prescribed burning holds the answer to climate adaptation planning in the Klamath River range. Fire is foundational to the Karuk Tribe, who live and manage 1.48 million acres of their aboriginal lands along the Klamath and Salmon Rivers in northern California. By removing accumlated fuels, fire makes room for new growth and change. This renewal helps ensure the quality of traditional foods and cultural materials and serves as a medium of cultural education. Ceremonies surrounding fire strengthen the Tribe's social networks and enhance its members' physical and mental health.

Categories: U.S. climate resilience toolkit, climate change, human health, tribal sovereignty, self-determination, adaptation, mitigation, management, prescribed burn, wildfire, prevention, technical. climate science, TEK, cultural resources, U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit,

Nuiqsut is a traditional Inupiat community located in Alaska's North Slope region on the west bank of the Colville River, 18 miles south from the inlet to the Beaufort Sea. The North Slope of Alaska is well within the Arctic Circle—even during its short summers, the land there is mostly permafrost and ice. People, wildlife, and vegetation in the region have all adapted to live in the cold, mostly frozen environment. However, as temperatures warm across the region, the environment is changing rapidly, and a new Arctic is emerging. In addition to threats to native plants and wildlife, warming conditions can also cause traditional underground ice cellars to melt. These cellars are cut directly into the permafrost to store food. When the permafrost melts, the hard-won caribou, seal, and other meat stored in these cellars can rot and become unusable. Understanding conditions inside cellars and the factors that affect them is critical for determining adaptation options and for building the communities' resilience to the warming conditions. Engineers at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) have developed a conceptual design for an ice cellar featuring an energy-efficient, thermostat-controlled cooling system, a solar- and/or wind-energy power system, and structural supports and ventilation for allowing exchange of cellar and outside air.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Climate Change, Permafrost Melt, Food Insecurity, Community Health, Infrastructure Adaptation

While the residents of Alaska Native villages face a disproportionately higher risk of having their traditional subsistence lifestyles affected by Arctic development, they also recognize that changes bring new opportunities. Accordingly, leaders of several Alaska Native Village Corporations have stepped up to discuss the potential positive and negative impacts to their region with resource producers and other development groups. Seven Alaska Native Village Corporations—Gambell, Golovin, Saint Michael, Sitnasuak, Stebbins, Unalakleet, and Wales—have formed a limited liability corporation, the Bering Sea Alliance (BSA), to have a stronger voice in protecting their subsistence way of life when working with other groups such as government agencies and private organizations. Working together through BSA, they aim to engage in dialogue with key stakeholders to protect the rich abundance of their region while striving to enhance their disadvantaged local economies. To help Alaska Natives build local capacity to prepare for oil and gas development, BSA holds a variety of training workshops and conferences for these communities. BSA also seeks joint ventures with organizations in the public and private sectors to provide services such as spill-response and rescue operations.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Climate Change, Policy, Adaptation, Energy Production, Capacity Building, Disaster Risk Reduction

The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Skagit River System Cooperative, are developing tools that assess future projections of sea level rise and wave impacts to nearshore habitats. Community members will take an active role in determining community health impacts based on the projections using the Indigenous Health Indicators (see link at right). The Swinomish community will use methods they piloted and tested in 2013 to (1) assess future impacts to shellfish, juvenile salmon rearing habitats, and other culturally important nearshore areas, and (2) evaluate community health implications based on the projected nearshore impacts. Results will guide decision making to mutually benefit ecosystem protection and restoration, coastal hazards mitigation, community health, and adaptation to climate change.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Coasts, Sea-level rise, Food Health, Community Health

The Yukon River drains a vast and diverse area of western Canada and Alaska. Where it approaches Alaska’s southwest coast on the Bering Sea, the great river spreads out and meanders across the Yukon Delta, a broad, flat region of wetlands and tundra underlain by permafrost. For thousands of years, Native Alaskans of Yup’ik and Cup’ik cultures have flourished in this unique region, sustained by hunting, fishing, and gathering the region’s diverse plant life. To help residents document past and current conditions across the delta—and use that information to anticipate and adapt to future changes—a group of scientists from government agencies and universities collaborated with community members from four indigenous communities. In the winter and spring of 2014, researchers and community members gathered observations in a project called Strategic Needs of Water on the Yukon (SNOWY).

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Community Resilience, Social Equity, Assessment and Planning

The homelands of the Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) are located on the Pacific coast of Washington's Olympic Peninsula—the tribe's culture and economy depend on the bounty of the land, forests, rivers, and ocean. With its location on the Pacific Ocean, the risk and uncertainty of tsunami has been, and continues to be, ever-present. Today, though, the Quinault community faces a different type of threat to its daily life: impacts from climate change. With support from the community, QIN leadership made a difficult decision: they would begin planning to relocate the lower portion of Taholah to higher ground. With support from a Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS) grant from the Administration for Native Americans, efforts were initiated to develop a master plan by 2016.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Disaster Risk Reduction, Coastal, Relocation

The Yakima River Basin in the state of Washington supports a multi-billion dollar agriculture sector. The value of apples, cherries, and other food and natural resources harvested from across the basin make substantial contributions to the local, regional, and national economies. Additionally, the region has significant populations of salmon and steelhead trout. The fish are essential to tribal members' subsistence lifestyles and cultural traditions, and they support a thriving recreational fishing industry. Over a 15-year period in the recent past, the basin faced five years with drought conditions. The lack of water in each dry year had a strong negative impact on the region’s productivity and pointed out the risk that climate variability and change pose to the basin. Further, the Third National Climate Assessment and other studies indicate that the region can expect even more challenges as climate changes. Recognizing their vulnerability, representatives of the Yakama Nation, irrigation districts, environmental organizations, and federal, state, county, and city governments formed a work group in 2009 to design and implement a solution to the basin’s growing water problems. By 2011, the group released a basin-wide climate adaptation strategy designed to secure a future for fish, farms, and families across the basin. The Yakima Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan is a 30-year, $3.8 billion plan that restores ecological integrity to the region and provides assurances for meeting agricultural water needs even in the face of ongoing climate change. The plan is a collaborative effort to restore and protect ecosystems: it strategically and creatively addresses the realities of climate uncertainty and places the basin on a path to long-term resiliency.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Drought, Water, Fish Health, Adaptation, Restoration, Conservation, River Basin

The four member tribes of the Upper Snake River Tribes (USRT) Foundation have already noticed shifts in species and habitats driven by increasing temperatures and changing precipitation patterns. Such changes have resulted in drying sagebrush steppe habitat, extended wildfire seasons, less winter precipitation falling as snow, earlier spring run-off, lower summer streamflows, higher water temperatures, reduced flow from springs/seeps, proliferation of invasive weeds, and decreasing productivity of rangeland—all of which have the potential to affect the tribes' respective cultures, spirituality, and lifeways. In 2016, the Foundation undertook a collaborative Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment (CCVA), partnering with external groups Adaptation International, the University of Washington, and Oregon State University. The project evaluated the relative climate change vulnerability of some of the species, habitats, and resource issues that are important and valuable to USRT member tribes.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Ecosystems, Resource Management, Invasive Species, Food Production

The Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe—a federally recognized Native American tribe in California—was one of 16 communities selected as a 2015–2016 Climate Action Champion by the Obama Administration for exceptional work in response to climate change. The Tribe began its strategic climate action planning in 2008 and has become a regional leader in greenhouse gas reductions and community resiliency measures. To date, the Tribe has reduced energy consumption from 2008 levels by 35 percent and has committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2018, utilizing a range of approaches—including aggressive energy efficiency upgrades, developing on-site renewable energy (biomass, solar, fuel cells, grid battery storage), and switching to green fuels (electricity and biodiesel).

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Energy Production, Green Fuels, Sustainable Housing, Disaster Risk Reduction

Today, seafood, game, and traditional plants remain essential to the Suquamish culture and diet. Around 20 percent of the Tribe's members help support their families by earning income from the harvest of fish and shellfish, and proceeds from geoduck clam harvests support elders' programs. However, decades of development have significantly degraded these species' habitats, which reduces their ability to withstand predicted impacts of climate change. In 2010, biologists working in the Tribe's Fisheries Department began discussing the threats of ocean acidification and climate change with the Suquamish Shellfish Committee. In consultation with the Shellfish Committee, the Tribal Council adopted two strategies for immediate action: (1) use the K–12 educational system to help change human behaviors that harm ecosystems; and (2) develop computerized zooplankton imaging and identification tools researchers can use to detect and monitor changes at the base of the marine food web. The Tribe is also pursuing another strategy to study the impacts of ocean acidification: they are building tools that facilitate the visual study of zooplankton.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Fish Health, Water Health, Ocean Acidification, Education

Fisheries managers identified pollution from manure runoff at local dairy farms as a major cause of salmon mortality. Historically, many farmers held the view that tribal fishing rights imposed limits on their farms and increased operation costs. The Tulalip Tribes sought a mutually beneficial solution to resolve this conflict. Collaboration among the Sno/Sky Agricultural Alliance, Northwest Chinook Recovery, and Tulalip Energy Corporation eventually established Qualco Energy as a shared energy cooperative. The group arranged for area farmers to collect livestock manure and agricultural waste in tanks, keeping it out of the streams. The waste products are then fed into an anaerobic biodigester to generate methane gas. The clean-burning methane is sold to produce green energy, and the digester effluent is stored in lagoons and returned to the farmers for irrigating their fields. The salmon-friendly energy is then sold to the Snohomish County Public Utility District. In 2010, these groups collaborated to launch the Sustainable Lands Strategy (SLS) to build resilience through cooperative planning at the basin scale.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Fish Health, Water, Biodiversity Conservation, Energy Production

Members of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa believe that it is the obligation of the community to preserve and protect cultural resources for seven generations into the future. Tribal leaders and staff have committed to reducing the Band’s contributions to the greenhouse gases that lead to warming through developing and promoting projects and policies that advance sustainability and energy efficiency. In 2007, the Fond du Lac Reservation Business Committee ratified the Kyoto Protocol, pledging to obtain 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by the year 2020.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Food Insecurity, Flooding, Energy Production

Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at more than twice the rate of the global average. Results include violent ocean storms, flooding, and erosion beneath the homes of Kivalina—impacts that have been traumatic to the barrier island's Alaskan Iñupiaq community. Sea ice that once protected the island from winter storms no longer forms early enough in the fall to prevent rising waters and storm surge from reaching the island's shores. Patchy sea ice also makes winter travel and hunting difficult and dangerous. Residents and others are making concerted efforts to move the community to safety.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Permafrost Melt, Infrastructure Damage, Community Health, Relocation

The Sacramento Mountains—home of the Mescalero Apache Tribe (MAT) in southern New Mexico—are experiencing a shift to a warmer and drier climate. Local meteorological records reveal that three of the area's worst 10 droughts and some of the highest temperatures ever recorded in the region all occurred since 2011. Trends show that the monsoon season is arriving later in the year, and the average duration and frequency of monsoon rains is decreasing. Additionally, the average duration and intensity of winter snowfall has decreased, reducing the Tribe's water supply and negatively impacting its Ski Apache ski resort. In the face of these environmental challenges, members of the tribe are looking for the best ways to keep their forests and waters healthy. They also have a new interest in growing healthy and sustainable foods for their community. MAT tribal government and managers are working with a range of federal, state, and local government agencies and academia to maintain forest health and resiliency.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Resource Management, Food Insecurity, Forest Health

As more Tribal Nations complete climate adaptation plans, and begin more in-depth resource analysis, they can find existing vulnerability assessments by geographic area, assessment target, sponsoring agency, and other factors. Registered users can also enter basic information about a vulnerability assessment, enabling colleagues, partners, and others to learn and benefit from their work. Existing Tribal Nations contributions may be found in the Other Regions section of the location-based search.

Categories: vulnerability, assessment, adaption, climate change

The first section of the guidebook briefly describes the legal and administrative aspects of developing a water quality program. Having general familiarity with the legal background will help tribes more effectively create and operate the program. The second section of the guidebook briefly describes the technical aspects of developing the program, including setting and administering water quality standards for waterbodies on tribal land. Access the PDF here.

Categories: water quality, resource guide, Tribal land, water law

In the South Central US, particularly severe climate impacts are projected to occur. With support from the South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (SC CASC) and Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP), the University of Oklahoma (OU) hosted a series of five intertribal workshops on climate impacts. Paulette Blanchard, a Master’s candidate at OU who played an instrumental role in organizing the workshops, brought together native filmmakers with tribal participants to discuss ways that native people can document their experiences and challenges with climate impacts. These workshops also provided an opportunity for tribes and governmental agencies such as the SC CASC to establish working relationships.

Categories: workshop, climate adaptation, intertribal