The impacts of climate change on tribal traditional foods

Abstract

American Indian and Alaska Native tribes are uniquely affected by climate change. Indigenous peoples have depended on a wide variety of native fungi, plant and animal species for food, medicine, ceremonies, community and economic health for countless generations. Climate change stands to impact the species and ecosystems that constitute

Native Americans: Where in Environmental Justice Research?

“…Culturally significant plants and animals play an important role in tribal health (Adamson 2011; Lynn et al 2013), again demonstrating cultural definitions at odds with mainstream health indicators. “First foods” in Native America, for example, represent not only sustenance, but also a source of spirituality and mental health.…”

“…Case studies document a variety of environmental inequalities with regard to Native Americans, including lead poisoning (Bullard 1994; Malcoe et al 2002), military weaponry testing and waste disposal (Blackford 2004; Gover and Walker 1992), and—more recently—vulnerability to climate change (Cochran et al 2013; Maldonaldo et al 2013; Lynn et al 2013; Shearer 2012). Climate change became an EJ issue because those experiencing the most harmful effects of a changing climate are typically those who have contributed the least emissions (Trainor et al 2007).…”

“…Native American EJ case studies cover wide-ranging topics including indigenous culture or ways of life (e.g., Hoover et al 2012), resource exploitation (e.g., Smith and Frehner 2010), environmental health (e.g., Shriver and Webb 2009), and, recently, climate justice (e.g., Krakoff 2011; Lynn et al 2013). Although strides have been made among Native American tribes regarding self-determination and control over land use decision-making, important socio-environmental inequalities remain.…”

Indian time: time, seasonality, and culture in Traditional Ecological Knowledge of climate change

“…First, while western scientists usually describe vulnerability to climate change in economic or ecological terms, or occasionally mention deeper effects (as in the Field et al quote above, about identity, or Lynn et al 2013 about tribal first foods), many Indigenous peoples and communities approach the question of how climate change affects them quite differently. They see themselves additionally vulnerable psychologically and existentially, and see climate change as threatening the integrity of their communities' cohesion, or as altering the existential, personal, and intimate (as opposed to metaphorical or consumptive) relationships with the natural world (Maldonado 2012;Maldonado et al 2013;Marino 2012;Willox 2012;Willox et al 2011;LaDuke 2017;Whyte et al 2016).…”

Characterizing the vulnerability of intertidal organisms in Olympic National Park to ocean acidification

“…The intertidal zone is comprised of rocky reefs, sandy beaches, and cobble boulder fields and is valued regionally and nationally for its ecological, economic, and cultural significance. The loss of species in the intertidal zone that rely on a particular pH threshold or the availability of CO 3 2− could fundamentally alter one or all of these interests (Cooley et al, 2009;Lynn et al, 2013) and have resounding reverberations for marine food webs (Gaylord et al, 2015). Over the past decade, ocean pH off the Olympic coast has declined an order of magnitude faster than predicted by accepted conservative climate change models (Feely et al, 2004;Wootton and Pfister, 2012) and has impacted marine aquaculture in the region (Barton et al, 2015).…”