Researchers recently published the first-ever edition of a journal devoted entirely to the impact of climate change on indigenous people in the Northern U.S., it was published in Climate Change, a Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission press release reported.
A group of over 50 authors representing "tribal communities, academia, government agencies and NGOs" contributed to the report.
The large team looked at how the warming planet affected indigenous people's "traditional knowledge, forests and ecosystems, food security and traditional foods, water, Arctic sea ice, permafrost thaw, and relocation."
Indigenous people tend to have a close connection with the Earth and its resources and have observed the impacts of climate change over time. "Traditional ecological knowledge and tribal" could be part of the development of future climate change solutions.
"The Special Issue reminds us that the damaging effects of climate change is a global phenomenon that fails to recognize political nation-state boundaries," Professor Dan Wildcat, of the Haskell Indian Nations University and contributor, said.
"The partnerships between tribal peoples and their non-tribal research allies give us a model for responsible and respectful international collaboration that will be essential to successfully mitigate the most damaging effects of climate change that have yet to arrive. Climate change and this Special Issue remind us that, as my Lakota relatives say, 'We are all related.' That might be the wisdom we need most whether scientist or non-scientist - Indigenous or non-Indigenous," Wildcat said.
The research published in the special volume will supplement the "Impacts of Climate Change on Tribal, Indigenous, and Native Lands and Resources" chapter in the Third National Climate Assessment, which will be released next year. The assessment will inform and climate change decision makers across the U.S.
"Our first foods are beginning to suffer the impacts of climate change," Joel Moffett, chairman of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said. "Salmon are returning later and our first salmon feasts are being pushed back because of these later runs. It is nice to see the scientific community recognizing tribal knowledge and observations surrounding climate change."
