Tribal Profiles, Fact Sheets and Climate Planning Tools

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

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

In 2007, the Swinomish Tribe passed a Climate Change proclamation in response to growing concerns about potential impacts of climate change on the Swinomish Indian Reservation. This profile highlights the project climate change impacts for climate change, their planning process for the impact assessment and action plan development, as well as key partners and project successes and challenges.

Categories: Coastal, Adaptation, Tribal

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

Cook Inletkeeper developed the Stream Temperature Monitoring Network to build the science-based knowledge needed to identify thermal impacts in Alaska’s coastal salmon habitat. We are 1) collecting consistent, comparable temperature data for Cook Inlet’s salmon streams; 2) increasing our understanding of the rate of rising stream temperatures and areas of maximum exceedances throughout the basin; and 3) providing the knowledge and data needed to prioritize sites for future research, protection and restoration actions. Click here for site locations and links for site-specific factsheets.

Categories: Cook Inlet Watershed, salmon, climate change, warming temperatures, stream temperatures, adaptation, data collection, restoration

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

SmartICE is an award-winning technological innovation for the North. We are the world’s first climate change adaptation tool to integrate traditional knowledge of sea ice with advanced data acquisition and remote monitoring technology. Our system combines these approaches to provide invaluable, data-driven insights into sea-ice thickness and local ice conditions, in near real-time. We embrace a business model that aims to expand opportunities for economic and social development in northern markets while preserving local cultures and lifestyles.

Categories: sea ice, arctic, traditional knowledge, data collection, monitoring, adaptation, technology

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) developed the Seven Generations (7G) manual, training, and outreach program to assist Alaska Native communities to adopt an environmental planning process to recognize climate impacts and build community capacity for resilience from which other Tribal Nations may also benefit. The Tool is called “Seven Generations” because many Tribal Nations hold in common a policy to consider many future generations in community decision-making to focus on long-term sustainability.

Categories: outreach, training, sustainability, generations, tribal nations

Alaska Native communities rely on easy-to-use multiple SNAP tools, including climate projections, climate science, and data exploration by community name, which rapidly develops a local focus within the broader context of climate change.

Categories: climate projections, community, climate change, tools

"The Tribe is engaged in climate change mitigation (efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation (responding to current and future issues caused by a changing climate) from a local to a global scale, and everything in between. Locally, the Samish Council has committed to creating a climate resilient community and reducing the Tribe’s carbon footprint through energy efficiency and renewable energy development."

Categories: mitigation, ITEP, adaptation, climate resilient, carbon footprint, energy efficiency, renewable energy development

Tribes are beginning to identify potential climate change impacts on their cultural and environmental resources and to develop climate change adaptation plans. The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, located in New York and Canada, is in the early stages of adaptation planning. The Tribe is bringing together the Haudenosaunee decisions makers from the Tuscarora Nation, Seneca Nation, Tonawanda Nation, Onondaga Nation, Cayuga Nation, and Oneida Nation in New York as well as the Mohawk Nation and Shinnecock Nation to identify priority resources that should be considered in addressing climate change. The goal of the Haudenosaunee and other Tribes is to combine knowledge of traditional cultural resource values with local knowledge of recent climate changes. The ultimate goal of this unique strategy is to bring together Tribal decision makers to share information that will lead to practical planning.

Categories: Adaptation, Tribal

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 Regional Resilience Toolkit focuses on the regional scale because disasters happen at a regional scale, and a coordinated process across multiple jurisdictions can result in safer communities. The toolkit is set up to allow multiple jurisdictions and levels of government to work together for regional-scale actions. It is also designed for non-governmental partners and community groups to engage in a more inclusive and holistic process so that resilience actions are guided by core community values.

Categories: emergency preparedness, natural disasters, resilience, toolkit

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 Pueblo of Tesuque is located in the desert Southwest, approximately 10 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The traditional Tesuque form of farming has long been hailed as a benchmark for sustainable agriculture in arid environments. Unfortunately, the climate change-induced decline in regional precipitation has made traditional farming more challenging for the Tesuque people. In addition to ongoing concerns about surface water volume and access, the Pueblo of Tesuque Environment Department has to contend with regional fire hazards, which are predicted to intensify with climate change. In light of these climate change-driven environmental concerns, the Pueblo of Tesuque Environment Department has turned its attention toward (1) watershed management and planning and (2) wildland restoration.

Categories: Drought, Management, Tribal

The Pueblo of Jemez in New Mexico is engaged in several renewable energy projects, including developing a four-megawatt solar power plant, exploring the feasibility of developing its geothermal resources, and designing a biomass boiler for its visitor center that will use waste from forest thinning projects. The tribe is also providing education and training to its youth and community members about renewable energy.

Categories: Renewable energy, Education, Tribal

Steve Crawford, director of the Passamaquoddy Tribes' Environmental Department and chair of the Natural Resources Committee of the United South and Eastern Tribes (USET) cooperative, is working with local tribes to spread the word about climate change and addressing what tribes can do through adaptation and miitigation. Steve is working with Passamaquoddy Tribe on alternative energy and fuel sources, and feels immediate action is required to reverse the warming process.

Categories: Adaptation, Mitigation, Education, Energy, Tribal

The Pala Band of Mission Indians, like many tribes, has turned to renewable energy as a means of lowering energy costs and gaining independence from the grid. In the last three years, the Tribe has received funding support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs toward two separate renewable energy projects—the first of which is now complete, and providing significant benefits to the Tribe.

Categories: tribal profiles, Office of Indian Energy, solar power, renewable energy

Collaboration is something the Pacific Northwest Region is deeply committed to and has engaged in for decades. It can provide agency staff opportunities to address local community priorities, build community capacity, leverage resources, and increase accomplishments and benefits across the board. There are 36 collaborative groups that work either exclusively or partially on national forest lands (see map pgs 6-7). All national forests in the Pacific Northwest Region are linked to at least one forest collaborative group.

Categories: collaboration, community, capacity, resource management, national forest lands

Since time immemorial, Samish people have lived and prospered on the land and water of the Salish Sea in Washington State. Over time, Samish people have successfully navigated a variety of changes while maintaining a strong connection to the resources, rich lands, and waters of our region. While many of us may have moved away, we are still connected to this place and through it, to each other.

Categories: traditional ecological knowledge, cultural resources, climate change adaptation, sea level rise, stream temperatures, ocean acidification,

A consortium of dedicated Oglala Lakota programs and organizations was awarded nearly a million dollars in the form of a HUD Sustainable Communities Planning Grant to pursue a path towards creating a Regional Plan for Sustainable Development for the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota. The planning effort is being led by the non-profit Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation and includes numerous partners from within the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Tribe, as well as many non-governmental public and private partners. The Tribe also became the first official Tribal member of ICLEI USA–Local Governments for Sustainability. By joining, the Tribe made a voluntary pledge to mitigate climate change, seek adaptation measures, and promote sustainability. Ultimately, a Climate Action Plan for the Tribe will be developed and with the goal of inclusion in the overall Oyate Omniciyé | Oglala Lakota Plan.

Categories: Mitigation, Adaptation, Tribal

The Norton Bay Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (NBITWC) formed in 2012 after recognizing the need for Alaskan Native Villagers in the Arctic to come together todevelop community projects to address those critical infrastructure threats. The NBITWC is based in the Norton Bay area, at the southern end of Norton Sound onthe Seward Peninsula, and focuses their efforts on issues related to the Norton Bay watershed. Five federally recognized tribal governments are represented onthe NBITWC: the Native Villages of Elim, Unalakleet, Shaktoolik, Golovin, and Shismaref. Together, their voices are stronger than any individual Village’s could be.

Categories: tribal profile, resilience, action, climate adaptation, community, infrastructure, mitigation, risk assessment, BIA Tribal Resiliency Program

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe of southeastern Montana takes climate change seriously and is doing something about it. The tribe has been progressing on a showcase demonstration project on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30 metric tons CO2e annually through energy retrofits of the Tribal Environmental Protection Department (EPD) building. This project is supported by a $200,000, two-year grant provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2010 through its Climate Showcase Community Program.

Categories: Mitigation, Tribal

In the mid to late 1990’s, the Nez Perce Forestry & Fire Management Division began developing a carbon offset strategy to market Carbon Sequestration Credits. This profile describes the tribe’s initial trial afforestation project, and their strategies for reinvesting revenue from the sale of carbon to invest in additional afforestation projects, wildlife rehabilitation and forest development.

Categories: Carbon Sequestration, Carbon Offset, Tribal

NCAI developed this resource center to serve as an online hub where tribal leaders, natural resource managers, climate scientists, and other interested stakeholders can access the latest information, data, and other key resources on climate change, its particular impacts on Indian Country, and how tribal nations are taking action to combat it. This center is designed to serve as a growing resource that tribal nations can use to inform and guide strategic decision making in their crafting of self-governed approaches to climate action.

Categories: climate change, impacts, adaptation, tribes, climate scientists, decision making

The Native Navajo people of the southwestern United States are facing an increasingly dry climate. In a region that receives an average of only six inches of precipitation per year, average warming of just two degrees Fahrenheit can significantly increase evaporation and loss of water through plants, reducing available moisture by a third. Alone, this drying process has the potential to fundamentally alter local ecosystems. When combined with a decrease in winter snowfall that feeds year-round streams, the impacts of drying can multiply. Roughly one-third of the Navajo Reservation is covered with sand dunes. In the already windy and increasingly arid environment, vegetation that can grow on dunes withers, and dunes can become mobile—obliterating everything in their path. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are now conducting research on the dunes. This work can provide critical data to the Native peoples of the region as they consider how they might respond. Some Navajo Nation communities are also working with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Northern Arizona University Environmental Education Outreach Program (EEOP) to provide education and to test methods to that may help stabilize sand dunes.

Categories: U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction, Water, Drought

limate change coupled with inceasing drought conditions over the last 15 years has had aconsiderable effect on the Navajo Nation, including the reactiviation of sand dune migration and sand dune migration. The sand dunes offer tangible evidence of spiking drought conditions and a glimpse into the future of an unstable ecosystem and the effects on sheep herding and other familiar ways of life.

Categories: Drought, Research, Tribal

The categories on this page contain resources which may be relevant to Tribal Public health and climate change including NIHB resources, websites and general external resources, climate change reports, media, and external webinars.

Categories: climate change, public health, tribal health, community well-being, fact sheets, project resources

The NCAI Resource Library offers a wide array of searchable resources to support and inform tribal leaders and citizens, and to educate the general public and media. The Resource library is updated frequently, providing the latest and most relevant information on American Indian and Alaska Native policy matters.

Categories: policy, resolutions, consultation, resources, information

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