In 2019, on one of my early roadtrips to the Yukon Territory and Alaska I started documenting the impact of Climate Change on Native and First Nation Communities. This is the webpage I developed to share what I heard and learned... this is where it all began.
Find it hard to think about climate change?
I'm scared.
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I don't understand what needs to be done.
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Food
Unlike modern farming where food is grown to profit when selling the goods, most Native and First Nation communities directly consume the food they harvest from their land. This subsistence farming has minimal impact on the environment while modern agriculture is the largest contributor of non-carbon dioxide emissions, responsible for 29% of total green house gas emissions. Ironically, Climate Change threatens the survival of First Nation and Native communities because of their direct dependence on the land for food.
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I had some experience of what it was like to be dependent on the land for food. When I went hiking with my family on the Exit Glacier in Alaska, we brought only a few almond butter and jelly sandwiches along with a bottle of water. We did not expect to complete the whole hike and later realized that we did not bring enough food.
Fortunately we found plants that resembled raspberries along the hiking path and learned that these were Salmon berries which were traditionally eaten by native people in the area. It was fun and relieving to be able to directly pick and eat these along our way. I can only imagine how much harder that 12-hour hike would have been without these berries to munch on!
We also witnessed this direct reliance on the land for food when visiting a native community in the Yukon. Someone had brought the Chief a bundle of wild rhubarb they had harvested nearby from where it was growing close to the surrounding forest.
Climate Change is causing more severe droughts that are drying out the forests of the Yukon and Alaska. This gives fires more fuel which is increasing the chances of them burning uncontrollably.
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We drove through a few areas in the Yukon where there were active forest fires or smoldering brush. This produced lots of smoke which made it hard to breathe and see the road.
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For the Native and First Nations People, the smoke from these increasingly common fires makes it harder to track and find animals that they would traditionally hunt for food.
The rising and inconsistent temperatures confuse hibernating animals which can be fatal to them. They would use so much energy to warm and wake themselves up, they would not have enough calories to survive until the warmth of spring.
How are Native & First Nation people affected by Climate Change?
Over the trip I was fishing for many days and was only allowed to keep the fish if it snagged their mouth. The rule is if you snagg them anywhere else on their body you have to throw it back. This rule is in place because snagging could hurt their fish population. After many days of trying and almost giving up, I finally caught a trout.
Yet some of the native people we visited with talked about having lots of fish when growing up. But now they had stopped fishing themselves to allow the salmon population to recover (click on Jaime's video below). And yet many tourist like ourselves were there still trying to catch salmon in the headwaters.
Climate change causes more frequent and violent storms. These storms disrupt the echolocation of the whales, making them think that the shore is a place they can navigate through. Once they get to the shallow banks near the shore they get stranded (click on Peter's video below).
There are First Nation and Native people who belong to whaling communities that are losing opportunities to hunt one of their traditional food sources (click on Xandria's video below)
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Indigenous people in the Climate Movement
Five percent of the world's population are Indigenous people and their way of life has protected 80% of the world's bio-diversity.
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A solution to climate change is to help Indigenous people lead the climate movement because they are the original protectors of the land. Racism and racist policies make it difficult to value the intelligence and knowledge of Indigenous people, and to follow their leadership.
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Also, as people who have learned and continue to live off the land for many generations, their way of life is most directly affected by climate change. They understand the importance and challenges of this work.
Play & Games
(I took some of the video from the Alaska Native Heritage Center website)
When visiting the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage Alaska, I was fortunate to watch young people of native heritage demonstrate their games and sports. I also got to play some of these games a the Long Ago People's place in the Yukon near White Horse.
All of these games and sports involved very simple tools and lot of physical agility. The games involved a dried gourd tied to the end of a rope dangled from a tree branch that they would jump and kick. In other games they simply used a stick to mark the farthest someone could jump. Eventhough the tools used were simple, the movements they had to make were very challenging!
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All of this made me think about the smaller amount of resources needed to play their games compared to ours. They did not need a hardwood floor basketball court with backboards and nets. They did not need a large football field and require players to wear helmets and lots of protective gear.
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This made me realize that one could still enjoy games and friendly competition without needing to affect the environment as much.
Community
Another way Climate Change is affecting First Nation and Native People is relocation of their communities. A primary cause for the relocation of the First Nations and Native People is the flooding of their villages. This occurs because of the melting permafrost and the rising sea levels resulting from the melting of arctic ice. Another reason for relocation is the pollution of surface waters which forces the communities to move closer to other water sources.
