Tribal communities are being especially hard hit by climate change. “Indian Country Today” recently posted a list of some of the indigenous peoples most impacted. The Hoh tribe along the Hoh River have reported they face constant threats of flooding. Their beach road has washed away and homes have been destroyed. The Quinault Indian Nation declared a state of emergency after a sea wall was breached near their headquarters. Rising sea levels have threatened villages up and down the Pacific Coast. The Quileute have moved to higher ground from their small bit of land between the Pacific Ocean and the Olympic National Forest because of rising waters. In Shishmaref and Kivalina, Alaska - along the northwest coast - melting sea ice has forced native villages to relocate. Further south, the Navajo Nation declared a drought emergency with a dry period even longer than the California Drought. The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla experienced wild fires that have made their Indian Canyons more susceptible to flash flooding. The Biloxi-Chitimacha Tribe has been on an island off the coast of Louisiana since the 1840‘s, but now it’s washing away along with much of the rest of the state’s coastline. The Hoopa Valley Tribe and the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation are two more societies that were forced to declare drought emergencies. The disruptions have been linked to a changing climate.
In a Press Release, “Climate Change Is Real Lets Fight It Together”, from the Quinault Nation, President Fawn Sharp said:
Quinault Nation established a comprehensive set of climate change policies in 2009, before congress considered introducing its national policies. We have advocated and advanced our climate change-related interests locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. “We have asked the President and Congress to understand the connection between climate change and such impacts as the decline of our Blueback salmon run and the destruction that is now occurring with shellfish and other species in the ocean due to acidification and hypoxia. Other tribes have worked alongside us, pushing for action by the state of Washington, the United States and the United Nations. It is our heritage, and right, to do so,” said Sharp.
“We believe it’s time to call to end the nonsensical debate in the legislature and in Congress about whether it exists. It does, and it is very serious.
Year in and Year out we are all facing the deadly consequences of a century of environmental contempt, and ignoring that fact will not make the challenge go away. It is time for people to treat our natural environment with the respect it deserves,” she said.
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/05/01/climate-change-real-lets-fight-it-together-154682
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/05/06/9-tribal-nations-taking-direct-hit-extreme-weather-154746
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/17/3461386/obama-announces-millions-for-tribes-rural-power-grids/