Indigenous

For the Nez Perce, and many tribes across the country, devastating wildfires have become more common. Lauren Paterson from Northwest Public Broadcasting reports on a new generation of Nez Perce firefighters in Idaho.

As rising seas threaten many Indigenous communities, two villages in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula are considering a project that would harness the power of ocean waves.

For millennia, Indigenous peoples have intentionally set fires to care for the land. Colonization and fire exclusion largely put an end to those practices, though the tradition endured. Now, California tribes have opened the door to a new era of cultural burning - a potential model for the rest of the West.

Across the country, rising seas are threatening Indigenous lands. The Pamunkey are dealing with both sea level rise and stormwater flooding. Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding spoke with two representatives from the tribe about the work they are doing to protect Pamunkey lands and what is at stake.

As the climate crisis worsens, the very ground on which some Indigenous communities built their homes is shifting before their eyes. A new podcast looked at how tribes in Alaska and Louisiana are losing their land to climate change, forcing them to make tough decisions about whether to stay or to leave.

In North Idaho, Lapwai is home to many members of the Nez Perce tribe, who call themselves the Nimíipuu. Raised in Lapwai, Jenny Williams, Omaha-Nez Perce, is a skilled Indigenous weaver who is passing down generations of traditional hand work to others in her community.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel recently reported on the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe’s mobile health clinic, which provides health care to about 2,000 Indigenous people in Nevada. Roedel spoke to Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding about the ways climate change is impacting Indigenous health, and what tribes are doing about it.

The rural healthcare shortage has hit some tribal nations especially hard. One tribe in Nevada has found a solution: a doctor’s office on wheels.

Farrell Hayes represents something that veteran firefighters say is harder to come by these days: a young person who wants to get involved in firefighting.

Amid the climate crisis, some Indigenous nations are reclaiming and rejuvenating their land. Many of these projects are not just about reclaiming land and culture, but also about climate resilience.