Historic and Contemporary Environmental Justice Issues among Native Americans in the Gulf Coast Region of the United States

Abstract

Settler-colonialism is founded in environmental racism, and environmental justice is foundational to all forms of decolonialization. Native American groups located in the Gulf Coast Region of the United States are particularly vulnerable to environmental justice issues such as climate change and oil spills due to their geographic location and reliance on the coastal region for economic and social resources. This study used the framework of historical oppression, resilience, and transcendence (FHORT) to explore the historic and contemporary forms of environmental injustice experienced by a Native American tribe in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. This critical ethnography analyzeda series of individual, family, and focus group semi-structured qualitative interviews with a total of 208 participants. Following the critical ethnographic method, data were interpreted through reconstructive analysis using NVivo. Findings of this study reveal the continuing impact of the BP oil spill and difficulty accessing resources following the spill, complicated by the tribe’s lack of federal recognition. Additional themes include the continuing impact of coastal erosion, historical and contemporary land loss, geographic marginalization, and concerns about a loss of tribal identity when tribal members are forced to relocate. Lack of federal tribal recognition has exacerbated all of these issues for this tribe. This study supports national findings that Native American groups experience extensive historic and contemporary environmental injustices and contextualizes these findings for a Native American tribe in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. Recognizing Native American sovereignty is key to addressing the environmental justice issues described.

The importance of community support for women in a Gulf Coast Indigenous tribe

“…Though this tribes’ members are spread throughout the Gulf South, their identity as a community remains vital and is tied to the region as a whole (Liddell and Kington, 2021). Specific concerns expressed by this tribe surrounding the environmental and social consequences of climate change are further explored in previous research by the second author and warrant continued scholarship (Liddell and Kington, 2021; Liddell et al , 2021).…”

“…The data for this article was collected as part of a broader study on the reproductive health experiences of Indigenous women from a Gulf Coast tribe using qualitative descriptive methodology (Liddell et al , 2021; Liddell and Doria, 2022; Liddell and Herzberg, 2022; Liddell and Kington, 2021; Liddell and McKinley, 2022; Liddell and Meyer, 2022; Liddell and Lilly, 2022a, 2022b). Qualitative descriptive methodology strives to honor and adhere to the true meaning of participants words by limiting researcher’s interpretation of data and by using verbatim transcription (McKinley et al , 2019; Burnette et al , 2014).…”

Environmental Justice of Coastal Hazards: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Though less common than previously discussed solutions, four papers called for more transformative solutions that address broader changes to fundamental structures and systems. In response to the historical and ongoing marginalization of Native Americans, Liddell et al and Liebernect and Mueller argued that achieving justice for these communities necessitates recognizing Indigenous sovereignty and selfdetermination (Liddell et al 2021;Liebernect and Mueller 2023). Other recommended governance changes that afford more power to historically marginalized groups included converting coastal areas and their management to a common pool resource to de-privatize adaptation processes ) and post-buyout land use plans that meet community-determined needs rather than developer's interests (Li & Spidalieri 2021;Liebernect and Mueller 2023).…”

Scope-shifting: Bureaucracy, Energy Justice and the Dakota Access Pipeline

“…Although sometimes described as a subset of procedural justice (Bell, 2014), recognition justice highlights the unique barriers that marginalized and underserved communities face and seeks to ensure that they are meaningfully integrated into decision-making processes. Recognition injustices have long characterized energy decision-making and continue today, particularly for Indigenous communities whose ontologies and epistemologies are often ignored or dismissed in decision-making processes (Hunsberger and Awâsis, 2019; Hurlbert and Rayner, 2018; Liddell et al, 2021). Meanwhile, cosmopolitan justice seeks to recognize impacts of localized environmental decisions on the global community (McCauley et al, 2019).…”