Indigenous Ground Truths
What is your climate story?
Climate Resilience Through Storytelling
Climate datasets illustrate how global temperatures are increasing and weather events are growing more extreme -- but data and statistics alone cannot tell the story of what it is like to experience these changes firsthand, which changes are meaningful, or how to best adapt. The Native Climate project at the Desert Research Institute supports climate adaptation efforts in Indigenous communities of the Southwest and Northern Plains regions by building new connections between Native wisdom and western scientific data. Through storytelling and information-sharing, we work to make climate data more accessible and useful to Tribes across the United States and to build awareness nationally about climate impacts and resilience on Native lands.
Climate Reporter Story Collection
Climate Reporters from the Native Climate project are talented Indigenous writers who explore climate change impacts and adaptation actions on the lands and communities in which they live. Through multimedia journalism, poetry, fiction writing, video, audio storytelling, and photography, Climate Reporters work to express the impacts of climate change on Native peoples and landscapes, highlight resilience actions, and help us understand the value of what is being lost in this rapidly warming world.
Explore their stories on the map below, or using the following QR code or link.
Restoring our relationship with hímu (willow) requires human interaction rather than protection
The Missouri River and Indigenous Placemaking
Estom Yumeka Maidu student teaches DIY air filtration techniques to help reservation communities during wildfire season
How Much More? A poem on sea level rise in Hawaii
Seek Me, You Two, and Find Me
The Water Within Us
Climate & Ceremony on the Hopi Nation: An Interview With Nadine Manuel
Trust The Rain
The Needles in my Path
The Tohono O’odham Himdag: Challenging the Climate Science View on Indigenous Climate Impacts
Echoes of Water: The Santa Cruz River’s Legacy
Renewal
Restoring our relationship with hímu (willow) requires human interaction rather than protection
In Western Nevada, climate stress is impacting the growth of hímu (willow). For Wá∙šiw (Washo) weavers, the path forward requires restoring traditional relationships between plants and people. Story by Robin Smuda, Wašiw person and a member of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California.
The Missouri River and Indigenous Placemaking
Indigenous peoples have been living on and with the lands of the Missouri River Basin since time immemorial. However, the creation of reservations, dams, and reservoirs distanced and disconnected Indigenous peoples from their traditional ways of life. A story by Paige Johnson walks us through the history of this region and how Tribal Colleges and Universities are working to restore Indigenous places and land stewardship practices.
Estom Yumeka Maidu student teaches DIY air filtration techniques to help reservation communities during wildfire season
Across the western U.S., climate change is leading to warmer, drier conditions and contributing to longer, more active fire seasons. Piercen Nguyen, member of Enterprise Rancheria, Estom Yumeka Maidu Tribe, has been teaching Native American community members in Nevada and California how to protect air quality in their homes during wildfire season. Story by Robin Smuda, Wašiw person and member of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California.
How Much More? A poem on sea level rise in Hawaii
By Gina McGuire, an ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) writer born and raised on Hawaiʻi Island.
How much more? I wonder, will the sea push, the slow crawl inland into freshwater lens.
How much to lose, these the offshore spring waters our ancestors dove, the gourds returned with sweet-tasting wai.
Seek Me, You Two, and Find Me
A short story by ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) writer Gina McGuire explores the intersection of Hawaiian culture with climate and disease ecology.
The Water Within Us
A poem by ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) writer Gina McGuire looks back to ancestral knowledges of groundwater and lifeways to inform the future.
“E mea ilihia hoʻomau nei.” Let this grace persist. This I prayed before the Sinagua Cliff Dwellings.
330 miles from the tide, yet still the sea surged through my veins— the sea salt crusting my bones in place, in awe.
‘Sin-agua’, the Spanish named these the Native ancestors whose mastery endures. ‘Without water,’ they labeled. A well-kept secret, perhaps: for the water is within us.
Climate & Ceremony on the Hopi Nation: An Interview With Nadine Manuel
An interview with Nadine Manuel touches on challenges facing the Hopi Nation during this time of climate change and drought. By Gina McGuire.
Trust The Rain
A poem by ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) writer Gina McGuire reflects on the presence and negative effects of microplastics in our bodies, food, air, and water.
“Let me look at your tongue,” the healer said to the child.
“What is it?” the young parents wanted to ask but they swallowed their trepidation in respect and in dread.
“ʻEa,” the healer says of the tongue coated white. ʻEa. Infection, thrush. “You can scrape the tongue, but this is just a kinolau A sign. Of something deeper.”
The Needles in my Path
A poem by Andra Hawk-Valdez, Hunkpapa Lakota from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, reflects on the effects of drought on the grasses during an evening walk at the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
There upon the earth, the ground is dry and cracked.
The grass that should be green is gold and yellow-tinged, dry, and sharp.
The breeze is cool and blows the needles across my path.
Should the grass be barren if these are the foothills that lead to the mountain?
The mountains look lavish and snow-capped, you can feel that crisp cool air in the breeze.
The sound of rushing raging water flows in the ditch below.
The air feels clean, but you can smell hints of the rotted earth from the winter that has passed.
The mountains are powerful and majestic. The sun’s rays stream through the soft clouds above, like beams of promise. This beauty is intended for eyes like mine,
As the sun passes through mountains and lays to rest.
The Tohono O’odham Himdag: Challenging the Climate Science View on Indigenous Climate Impacts
The Himdag (way of living in the world) has guided Tohono O'odham actions since time immemorial. It also holds valuable lessons for the future. A story by Tohono O'odham writer Mary Cathleen Wilson.
Echoes of Water: The Santa Cruz River’s Legacy
Diné writer Shecota Rae Nalwood Nez explores the history and future of the Santa Cruz River in a changing climate.
Renewal
A poem by Andra Hawk-Valdez walks us through the cycle of the seasons as storms build, fires burn, winds clear the air, and all is renewed. Hawk-Valdez is Hunkpapa Lakota from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
The mountains to the west of me, always seen against the skyline, large and beautiful.
They remind me of how big the earth is and how small we are. She breathes beauty.
Ni un (to be alive)
The mountains are a home and a world to the wildlife and plant life that live there.
They belong to that way of life, the rugged beauty and solitude of the mountain.
The seasons come and go, replenishing the earth in only the way that they can.
The rain had come but was only a little and not enough. The earth is dry.
The rivers that flow and come from the mountains are low. Where has the water gone?
A storm or two have made their presence known and have sent lightning ahead of them.
Wakinyan Agli (Thunder beings have returned)
Climate Projections For Your Region
What can we expect from our climate future and how can we prepare for the changes to come? Native Climate’s projections aim to prepare tribal communities for the changing conditions of coming years by providing data on probable weather conditions for the next century. We’ve compiled local projections for 633 tribally controlled areas in the United States including Alaska Native Villages and State Designated Tribal Areas, as well as climate divisions for the State of Hawai‘i. The data are based on the NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) Global Daily Downscaled Projections (GDDP) dataset (NEX-GDDP-CMIP6). These new projections are an update to the 2022 Native Climate Tribal College and University (TCU) projections , and use the latest version of the NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 dataset.
Native Climate CMIP6 Agricultural Climate Projections. Available: https://native-climate.com/projections/
NTICC Climate Stories
Native Climate wants to hear more about direct impacts in your communities and your responses to them. The map below holds accounts and experiences shared by participants at the 2024 National and Tribal Indigenous Climate Conference in Anchorage, Alaska. Click a point on the map below to read a story, or use our form to add your own story to this map!
Map showing location of climate change stories shared by NTICC participants.
Share Your Story
Do you have a story about climate change to share? Fill out our story submission form to add your story to the NTICC map.
Contact Us
If you have a climate change or climate adaptation story to share and would like to get in touch with one of our writers, please email Kelsey.Fitzgerald@dri.edu to connect with a member of our team!
