Introduction: climate change and indigenous peoples of the USA

Climatic Change (2013) 120:509515

DOI 10.1007/s10584-013-0849-6

Daniel R. Wildcat

Received: 11 December 2012 /Accepted: 16 July 2013 /Published online: 15 August 2013 # U.S. Government 2013

This special issue of Climatic Change, dedicated to the examination of impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples and their homelands, and proposed strategies of adaptation, constitutes a compelling and timely report on what is happening in Native homelands and communities. Indigenous peoples and marginalized populations are particularly exposed and sensitive to climate change impacts due to their resource-based livelihoods and the location of their homes in vulnerable environments. While these articles focus on indigenous peoples found within the borders of the USA, J. Maldonado et al. point out in their contribution, The Impact of Climate Change on Tribal Communities in the U.S.: Displacement, Relocation, and Human Rights, that indigenous communities around the world face similar issues and will likely find the contributions here valuable.

These articles confirm what those of us who have been paying attention to our homelands already know: the world we live in is changing, not the interior spaces and places where the majority of us situated in the midst of the modern industrial and postindustrial societies spend our days and nights, but the world of unbounded landscapes and seascapes that constitute what humankind denominates the natural world. Climate change, however, is only one of many drivers of change. Its effects cannot be isolated from the multiple social, political, economic, and environmental changes confronting present-day indigenous and marginalized communities. Indigenous peoples have long and multi-generational histories of interaction with their environments that include coping with environmental uncertainty, variability, and change. Collectively, these articles give us a glimpse of the day-to-day climate change reality those native people experience who still find their tribal identities and lifeways in practical activities situated in the symbiotic relationships of the nature culture nexus.

This article is part of a Special Issue on Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples in the United States: Impacts, Experiences, and Actions edited by Julie Koppel Maldonado, Rajul E. Pandya, and Benedict J. Colombi.

D. R. Wildcat

Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Okmulgee, USA

D. R. Wildcat (*)

Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Working Group, Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence, KS, USAe-mail: [email protected]

Introduction: climate change and indigenous peoples of...