{"id":3324,"date":"2020-01-14T18:34:25","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T18:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/?p=3324"},"modified":"2021-12-11T02:22:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-11T02:22:01","slug":"how-tribal-wisdom-can-help-climate-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/2020\/01\/14\/how-tribal-wisdom-can-help-climate-science\/","title":{"rendered":"How Tribal Wisdom can Help Climate Science"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-2go5os-1c3d0a6796c20455f2dd8ae01cbc8158\">\n.flex_column.av-2go5os-1c3d0a6796c20455f2dd8ae01cbc8158{\n-webkit-border-radius:0px 0px 0px 0px;\n-moz-border-radius:0px 0px 0px 0px;\nborder-radius:0px 0px 0px 0px;\npadding:0px 0px 0px 0px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='flex_column av-2go5os-1c3d0a6796c20455f2dd8ae01cbc8158 av_one_full  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_textblock  avia-builder-el-first  first flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding  '     ><section  class='av_textblock_section av-k5e7knd3-87cb0bb492ac2ebccea1d545d2b7fec8 '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><h3>Native peoples have been studying the climate for generations, and much of that knowledge is highly valuable.<\/h3>\n<p>Author: Sophie Yeo<br \/>\n(Originally published on January 6, 2020 at <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/changing-america\/sustainability\/climate-change\/475767-how-climate-science-benefits-from-traditional\">this link<\/a>)<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 500px; padding: 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/sites\/default\/files\/ca_berbershepherds_tunisia_122319gettyimages.jpg?\" alt=\"Berber shepherds in Tunisia\" \/><figcaption>Caption: Berber Shepherds in Tunisia: Photo credit: Felthi Belaid\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>Story at a glance:<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>There is often tension between Western climate scientists and indigenous communities.<\/li>\n<li>Native peoples often have deep knowledge that can help inform science, but they must be treated as respected partners in the process for it to work.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIf it\u2019s an indigenous or another vulnerable community, spending time is essential,\u201d says one researcher.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When Shanondora Billiot, a member of the United Houma Nation, decided to study the impacts of climate change on her own tribe, she knew that any mistakes would get back to her family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI absolutely knew that I could not be disrespectful while working with the tribe,\u201d says\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/socialwork.illinois.edu\/faculty-staff\/shanondora-billiot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Billiot<\/a>, a professor of social work at the University of Illinois. \u201cEveryone knows who my family is, so if I were to do something wrong, somebody would let me know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most climate scientists researching indigenous communities won\u2019t have to deal with the ire of their uncles or grandparents if they cause offense during their fieldwork. This lack of personal investment or accountability to indigenous communities can\u00a0form tense relationships, particularly given oppression that tribes have faced from federal agencies and affiliated institutions over generations.<\/p>\n<p>The Houma Nation has been inundated with research requests over the years. The coastline along Louisiana\u2019s Gulf Coast is rapidly eroding due to climate change and the networks of canals cut for the oil and gas industry. But tribal members are used to being forgotten, as scientists carried out their research and never returned. The Houma people are not alone in this:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1088\/1748-9326\/aaf300\/meta\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A 2018 study<\/a>\u00a0by Dominique M. David-Chavez, at the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona, found that 87 percent of climate studies used an \u201cextractive model,\u201d where researchers used global indigenous knowledge systems with minimal participation from the communities that had developed them.<\/p>\n<p>Critics say that approach is unhelpful for climate science and unfair to indigenous people, who can end up feeling exploited for the knowledge that they have been gathering for generations. So Billiot carried out her research slowly and deliberately, sitting at marinas where the boats docked, attending powwows and having lunch with anyone who asked. She kept a journal, maintaining separate records of her own feelings and her scientific observations and shared her analysis with the tribe as she went along.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Taking the time<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Integrating herself into the community meant that her project took a while \u2014 she stayed with the tribe for six months and interviewed 160 people \u2014 but she viewed this as an essential component of her research, particularly given its sensitive subject matter: the impacts of repeated environmental disasters on tribal mental health.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it\u2019s an indigenous or another vulnerable community, spending time is essential. The knowledge generation has to be co-produced and co-generated. It takes longer, so it\u2019s not something you can fly into and publish a whole bunch of manuscripts off of. It\u2019s a commitment,\u201d Billiot reflects.<\/p>\n<p>But climate scientists need to go further than simply adopting a respectful approach to the communities they study, says Kyle Whyte, a professor and environmental activist at Michigan State University as well as a member of the Potawatomi Nation. He believes that climate scientists should also help rebuild the institutions and knowledge systems that indigenous people built up over generations and stop perpetuating the notion that they are secondary to western science.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the knowledge that tribes in the U.S. and beyond have accumulated through generations is now recognized as vital in tackling climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Indigenous peoples\u2019 observations about trends and patterns in the natural world, as well as their insights on the connections between humans, animals and ecosystems, can help to illuminate the changes that the planet is undergoing today and can complement the data gathered by western scientists. In native Alaskan communities, for instance, hunters and elders\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fmars.2017.00319\/full\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have described changes<\/a>\u00a0in the movement and behavior of animals in recent years: instances of unusually abundant jellyfish, seals with sores and bald spots and smelly walrus meat.<\/p>\n<p>In particular, Whyte would like to see tribal partners paid the same salary as climate scientists when they partner on projects and share their knowledge, \u201cwhich may seem like a stretch, but it\u2019s actually tremendously problematic,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs indigenous people, way before the United States, or Canada or European invasions, we had our own knowledge systems. A lot of them were very scientific in terms of how they related to issues of the environment, sustainability, resilience and climate change,\u201d says Whyte. \u201cWe want climate scientists, before they even ask about particular research projects, to be in dialogue with us about how we can rebuild our own institutions so we can be independent and do our own climate science.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Common ground<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Education will be central to improving relationships between climate scientists and indigenous people. Whyte has already trained hundreds of scientists on how better to work with tribes. There are also initiatives like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/risingvoices.ucar.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rising Voices<\/a>, which aims to advance collaborations between western and indigenous knowledge; the Menominee Tribe runs its own\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/sustainabledevelopmentinstitute.org\/about-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sustainable Development Institute<\/a>, which carries out research and projects in line with Menominee beliefs and culture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t start off with the idea that climate science begins with some experiments that were done in Europe in the 19th century,\u201d says Whyte. \u201cInstead we should talk about how many societies historically were studying the climate and talk about the wisdom from those traditions and how that occurred for generations. And then show how, later on, what\u2019s currently called climate science emerges as a relatively new approach to studying the climate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In her study, David-Chavez suggests 10 questions that climate scientists should ask themselves when planning projects with indigenous communities. These include whether communities were included in the decision to initiate the study and if findings are accessible to community members.<\/p>\n<p>A more respectful and inclusive approach to indigenous knowledge is not only ethical; it is also good for science. Billiot ultimately felt that her research was improved by the extra time she took to knit crab traps and sort shells alongside other members of her fishing community. \u201cI was able to get deeper information, because I was there and people trusted me,\u201d she says. \u201cThey trusted I wouldn\u2019t try to profit off of or exploit the information they shared with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><section  class='av_textblock_section av-22jyxo-37bccdeeccc66b778c952c2ed00d00fd '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><\/div><\/section><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3324"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4410,"href":"https:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3324\/revisions\/4410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atnitribes.org\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}