"Tribal nations have lost 99 percent of their historical territory. Where they live now is more vulnerable to extreme weather, adding to the debate over how to address racial injustice."
"WASHINGTON — Centuries of land loss and forced relocation have left Native Americans significantly more exposed to the effects of climate change, new data show, adding to the debate over how to address climate change and racial inequity in the United States.
The findings, which took seven years to compile and were published Thursday in the journal Science, mark the first time that researchers have been able to quantify on a large scale what Native Americans have long believed to be true: That European settlers, and later the United States government, pushed Indigenous peoples onto marginal lands.
“Historic land dispossession is a huge factor contributing to extreme climate change vulnerability for tribes,” said Kyle Whyte, one of the study’s authors, who is a University of Michigan professor and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
The new data comes as the United States suffers through increasingly severe heat waves, drought, wildfires and other disasters made worse by a warming planet. By demonstrating that government actions have made Native Americans more exposed to climate change, the authors argue, the data strengthens the case for trying to make up for that damage, however imperfectly."
Christopher Flavelle reports for the New York Times October 28, 2021.
Advertisement 
