About the Series

This four-part series is focused on advancing discussions about climate adaptation in Tribal and Indigenous communities, highlighting promising adaptation practices, and showcasing the diversity of approaches to climate adaptation. The series will interest not only Tribal and Indigenous professionals, but also their neighbors, allies, and other adaptation professionals interested in innovative approaches.


Session Descriptions

Session One

SPEAKERS

Shasta Gaughen, Environmental Director and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Pala Band of Mission Indians

Angie Hacker, CEO and Principal Consultant, Prosper Sustainability; Contractor for the Pala Band of Mission Indians’ Tribal Climate Health Project

Syndi Smallwood, Guest Panelist, Jamul Indian Village


Moderator: Cynthia Naha, New Mexico Tribal Liaison & Science Communications Specialist, SC CASC


This session will share promising approaches, lessons learned, tools, and resources developed by Pala’s federally funded Tribal Climate Health Project (TCHP). In the last five years, this program has worked to strength U.S. Tribal capacity to assess and prepare for the health and other impacts of climate change through trainings, peer knowledge exchange, tools, nation-wide partnerships, data development, research, and direct assistance. This session will highlight the latest information on the health impacts of climate-induced wildfire, drought, heat, storms, and flooding on Tribes. It will detail how Pala has used its own adaptation experiences to inform the TCHP and how the TCHP continually informs Pala’s adaptation efforts.


Session Two

SPEAKERS

Elder Patricia Cochran, Alaska Native Science Commission

Elder Rosina Philippe, Atakapa-Ishak/Chawasha, Grand Bayou and First Peoples Conservation Council of Louisiana

Elder Theresa Dardar, Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe and First Peoples Conservation Council of Louisiana

Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw and First Peoples Conservation Council of Louisiana

Dr. R. Eugene Turner, Louisiana State University


Moderator: Stefan Tangen, Tribal Resilience Liaison, Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance

Session Organizer: Dr. Julie Maldonado, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network and Rising Voices Community Relocation and Site Expansion Working Group

Session Organizer: Dr. Amber Moulton, Associate Director for Research, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee


This roundtable will offer a conversation among colleagues working together to build collective power for community-led adaptation that is centered in the self-determination of Tribal communities. It will offer concrete practices and considerations for community-led processes to build partnerships, preserve culture, mobilize for advocacy and action, and advance solutions for community-led adaptation. 

The panelists will discuss the importance of centering Indigenous Knowledges and wisdom in climate adaptation, a collaborative, community-led effort to protect and preserve cultural heritage and restore wetlands in coastal Louisiana, and a community-led process to develop federal policy recommendations on climate-forced displacement, among other topics.

Participants will come away from the session with concrete examples and guidance for how to support community-led adaptation through research, funding, and advocacy.


Session Three

SPEAKERS

Raymond Martinez, DECP Director, Department of Environmental & Cultural Preservation, Pueblo de San Ildefonso

Joshua Rosenau, Secretary, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes – Climate Change Adaptation Council

Shasta Gaughen, Environmental Director and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Pala Band of Mission Indians


Moderator: Nikki Cooley, Co-Manager of the Tribal Climate Change Program, Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP)


This session will include three individual presentations from speakers Raymond Martinez, Joshua Rosenau, and Shasta Gaughen. These presentations will explore topics including community engagement, the integration of Indigenous and Pueblo cultures into adaptation planning, and transportation resilience and how it relates to access to health and emergency services. Speakers will touch on challenges and lessons learned throughout the planning and adaptation process.


Session Four

SPEAKERS

Anna Palmer, Filmmaker, Kalliopeia Foundation

Costa Boutsikaris, Filmmaker, Kalliopeia Foundation

Kalani Souza, Educator & Film Subject, Oholana Foundation

Herman Albers, Firefighter & Film Subject, Karuk Tribe


Moderator: Cynthia Naha, New Mexico Tribal Liaison & Science Communications Specialist, SC CASC


Inhabitants: An Indigenous Perspective is a 76 min feature documentary that follows five Native American communities as they restore their traditional land management practices in the face of a changing climate. Through conversations with Tribal project leaders and supporting foundations, the filmmakers developed a plan for creating a film to help document five Tribal land management projects. The five stories include sustaining traditions of Hopi dryland farming in Arizona; restoring buffalo to the Blackfeet reservation in Montana; maintaining sustainable forestry on the Menominee reservation in Wisconsin; reviving native food forests in Hawai’i; and returning prescribed fire to the landscape by the Karuk Tribe of California. Although these five tribal stories are not connected geographically, they share a common vision of restoring their cultural traditions to ensure a more resilient future in the face of a changing climate. This film was made collaboratively with a Tribal Advisory Board, which includes representatives from each of the Tribes highlighted in the film and the Kalliopeia Foundation. These partnerships allowed the filmmakers to ensure that the film is accurate, culturally appropriate, and meets the needs of the communities represented.


Tribal and Indigenous Climate Adaptation Committee:

Committee Chair: Cynthia Naha, New Mexico Tribal Liaison & Science Communications Specialist, South Central Climate Adaptation Center

Committee Members listed in alphabetical order by first name:

Althea Walker, Tribal Climate Science Liaison, American Indian Higher Education Consortium

Alyssa Samoy, Natural Resource Specialist, Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Climate Resilience Program

Arielle Quintana, Cochiti Pueblo, Colorado State University 

Atherton Phleger, Law Student, University of New Mexico

Carey Schafer, Project Coordinator, EcoAdapt

Carolyn Gillette, Senior Program Manager, Eastern Research Group

Chas Jones, Tribal Climate Resilience Liaison, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians

Corwin Carroll, Natural Resource Specialist, Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Resilience Program

Eric Mielbrecht, Director of Operations, EcoAdapt

Karen Cozzetto, Co-Manager of the Tribal Climate Change Program, Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals

Lauren Rust, Program Coordinator, Utton Center – University of New Mexico

Margaret Chavez, Senior Environmental Specialist, Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council, Inc.

Mike Chang, Senior Associate, Cascadia Consulting Group

Mona Arora, Assistant Research Professor, University of Arizona

Nikki Cooley, Co-Manager of the Tribal Climate Change Program, Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals

Rachael Novak, Coordinator, Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Resilience Program

Robert Newman, Professor of Biology, University of North Dakota

Sara Smith, Midwest Tribal Resilience Liaison, College of Menominee Nation

Sarah Diefendorf, Director, EFCWest

Sharon Hausam, Climate Adaptation Planner & Research Scientist, South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center

Stefan Tangen, Tribal Resilience Liaison, Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance

Thelma Antonio, Project Manager, High Water Mark


Sponsors

The Tribal & Indigenous Climate Adaptation Series would have not been possible without the generous support of the Walton Family Foundation.

Walton Family Foundation