Nine practices in Native American cultures that help protect the environment

Jim Enote, 66, started growing a traditional Zuni waffle garden (“hekko: we” in Zuni) before he could walk.

My grandmother said I started planting when I was a baby strapped to a cradle board, said Enott, who grew up in the water-starved Zuni Pueblo on the southeastern edge of the Colorado Plateau. She put the seed in my baby’s hand and I dropped it into the hole.

Enot continued this ancient garden design, creating rows of sunken squares surrounded by adobe walls that collect and hold water like pools of syrup in giant earthen waffles. The sustainable design protects crops from wind, reduces erosion and conserves water.

Water is scarce here and becoming more scarce every year, Enot said, pointing to increasing droughts and heat caused by climate change. So, I went ahead and planted a waffle garden.

Before European settlers arrived in the American West, Native Americans managed Northern California’s landscapes through cultural burning to improve soil quality, stimulate the growth of specific plants and create a healthy and resilient landscape, according to the National Park Service.

Over thousands of years, the Karuk people have developed a relationship with fire to maintain and manage the balance of the ecosystem, said Bill Tripp, director of natural resources and environmental policy for the Karuk tribe. In the natural environment, we rely on fire for a large part of the resources we rely on.

But in the mid-19th century, Aboriginal burning was banned. Not only does this cause the Karuk people to lose an important part of their culture, it could also lead to more severe wildfires. Combustion reduces the amount of fuel consumed by accidental fires.

them [forestry agencies] Tripp said the fire, which had been suppressed for so long, was experiencing such massive burns. A 2023 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the 10 largest wildfires in California history occurred in the past 20 years.

Of course they are [fires] Climate change is exacerbating the situation, he said.

Prescribed burning is back as state and federal agencies recognize the importance of fire in forest management. In 2022, California passed legislation affirming cultural fire rights and is considering another bill (sponsored by the Karuk Tribe) to reduce barriers to cultural fires on tribal lands.

According to the Karuk Tribe, passage of the bill would be an act of cultural and environmental justice.

In New Mexico, there are 700 still functioning acequias, centuries-old community irrigation systems that help increase water resilience in this arid state.

The designs of these acequias originate from North African, Spanish and Aboriginal traditions and were created in the 1600s. The name can refer both to gravity-fed irrigation ditches filled with water and to farmers who collectively manage the water. Unlike large irrigation systems, the infiltration of unlined algae helps recharge the water table and reduces aridification by adding water to the landscape. Earthen trenches mimic seasonal streams, expanding riparian habitat and providing habitat for many native species.

Jorge Garcia, executive director of the Center for Socially Sustainable Systems and secretary of the Asequias South Valley Regional Association, said, “First of all, it’s a very good, sustainable system that takes water from one source and brings it to It is delivered to the community. Without acequias, these ecosystems would not exist in the way we know them today.

Garcia said we need to maintain these knowledge systems, especially if we continue to live through dry years. We need all of these to survive.

Original carbon capture technology

U.S. forests are carbon sinks, absorbing up to 10% of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions. Native forestry can play a key role in reducing global warming by restoring the biodiversity and health of these ecosystems, including managing culturally significant plants, animals and fungi to make soil healthier.

“We know that much of the carbon in forests is stored in soil, and healthy soil depends on diversity,” said Stephanie Gutierrez, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and director of forest and community programs at Ecotrust. Therefore, when forests are managed for diversity of species or purposes and management outcomes, this will also lead to better climate outcomes.

However, tribal forestry remains severely underfunded and underutilized on public lands. Native Hawaiians are reintroducing ancient food forests that were once destroyed by overgrazing, logging and commercial agriculture.These biodiverse food forests increase food security and create nutrient-rich soils that sequester carbon.

Consider the potential if we implement tribal forestry practices in [not just] Land owned by the tribe. Neighboring landowners, community forests, national and state forests and parks should also work with tribes to integrate their technologies, Gutierrez said.

Arizona’s Hopi tribe receives an average of 10 inches of rain per year, one-third of what crop scientists say is needed to successfully grow corn. Yet Hopi farmers have grown corn and other traditional crops without irrigation for thousands of years, relying on traditional ecological knowledge rooted in high desert life.

In recent decades, a Native-led effort has begun to restore salmon runs on the Klamath River.

In 1918, as Chinook salmon moved upriver to spawn, the first of five dams blocked their path and the salmon began to disappear.

Barry McCovey Jr., director of the Yurok Fisheries Department, said of the dam’s devastating impact on salmon runs that First Nations depend on for their livelihoods, the river was cut in half. Chinook salmon populations on the Klamath River have declined by an estimated 90 percent due to habitat loss, poor water quality and climate change.

We’re seeing the system slowly heat up, McCovey said, explaining that warmer water temperatures can lead to increased disease and toxic algae blooms.You put climate change first [of habitat loss]which is not good news for salmon or anything that depends on healthy rivers.

Salmon are returning after dams were removed and massive river restoration was implemented. McCovey said the river, in its natural state, has the ability to adapt to climate change.

Over the last century, 75% of the world’s crop diversity has been lost, and as agriculture becomes increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, food security is further threatened.

Both our oral histories and historical records show extreme drought, said Aaron Lowden, a seed breeder and traditional farmer from the village of Acoma Pueblo west of Albuquerque.This is not their first time [seeds] A lot of pressure.

As the former program director for Ancestral Lands and current program director of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance’s Native Seedkeepers Network, Project Needy, Loudon has successfully integrated dozens of traditional drought-adapted seeds, such as Acoma blue Corn, Acoma squash, Acoma melons and other crops were returned to the people.

For Lowden, establishing this biodiversity is both a response to climate change and a step toward restoring the health and sovereignty of Acoma’s people.

Our people have been systematically abandoned from these lifestyles and practices, said Lowden, who found disproportionately high rates of hunger, diet-related illness and food insecurity in tribal communities. For me, it’s been trying to dismantle it all.

When Swinomish fisherman Joe Williams walked onto the shore of Washington’s Skagit Bay to help create the first modern clam garden in the United States, he was struck by a sense of past and present colliding. It’s truly amazing, said Williams, who is also the community liaison for the Swinomish Tribe. I can feel the presence of my ancestors.

For thousands of years, the Swinomish people have created and maintained clam gardens along the Pacific Northwest Coast. They built rock terraces at the low-tide line to increase shellfish production. The gardens also help clams withstand the effects of climate change by regulating water temperatures and expanding habitats threatened by rising sea levels and ocean acidification.

That’s it [ancestors] Williams said they fed the community and took care of those gardens, weathering climate change from then until now.

“We are rediscovering the way of life that has allowed our people to survive past natural climate change events,” he said. We can adapt to rapidly changing circumstances using the scripts our ancestors left us.

Climate-smart local design

In the field of construction, indigenous knowledge and techniques have long been ignored. Julia Watson’s 2019 book LoTEK: Radical Indigenist Design explores indigenous land management practices that represent a catalog of sustainable, adaptive and resilient designs that can withstand climate change from northern India The monsoon’s living bridge to a man-made underground stream called a karez, in what is now Iran.

Western control of technological innovation for climate resilience will really limit us, Watson said. We are looking for solutions that can adapt to climate extremes and large fluctuations. These indigenous technologies evolved from those conditions, subject to huge fluctuations, extreme fire events, water and food shortages, and flooding events.

Some technologies and solutions integrate with nature rather than trying to conquer it.

[Indigenous technologies] Watson said they are indeed smart and able to capture the DNA of ecosystems and communities. Incredibly complex technologies are the result of man and nature working together.