LIVING LANDSCAPES: CULTURE, CLIMATE SCIENCE, AND EDUCATION IN TRIBAL COMMUNITIES

American Indians and Alaska Natives have deep emotional connections to the places that make up their traditional homelands. Many tribal people still hunt and fish and harvest berries and medicinal plants and possess an in-depth knowledge about the plant and animal communities where they live. At the same time, tribal communities have been among the first to witness, understand, and experience the effects of the changing climate. This NASA-funded (NICE-T) project is designed to institutionalize climate change education within tribal communities by placing it within the context of tribal history, knowledge systems, and cultures. It includes a set of compelling, innovative educational resources for high schools throughout Indian Country and two climate change courses for tribal colleges. The materials place climate change within the context of a tribal perspective while utilizing NASA climate data analysis, modeling, and visualization tools, which enable students to envision how the climate and environment where they live is expected to change in the future. They also examine the likely impacts of those changes on tribal resources and cultures. We hope the project will improve climate literacy within tribal communities and ultimately lead to more diverse, effective, and equitable approaches to the challenges and impacts of climate change on tribal communities and beyond.