USET Tribal Climate Resilience Camp

The United South and Eastern Tribes (USET) held its first in-person Tribal Climate Resilience Camp from July 10-15  in the homelands of the Wabanaki Nations-The People of the Dawn, at the Schoodic Institute in Winter Harbor, ME. The following overview was written by Casey Thornbrugh (Southeast and Northeast Tribal Climate Science Liaison).  

The USET Office of Environmental Resource Management (USET-OERM) held its first in-person Tribal Climate Resilience Camp, July 10-15^th in the homelands of the Wabanaki Nations-The People of the Dawn, at the Schoodic Institute in Winter Harbor, ME. Tribal Nation teams of Resource Managers, Tribal Leaders, Tribal professionals, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge practitioners convened to discuss climate change concerns and impacts within their Nations and to learn from Tribal scholars and those who work in the field of Climate Change Resilience. Tribal Nation teams traveled from afar including the Everglades, the Great Smoky Mountains, the Catawba River, Aquinnah (on Martha’s Vineyard), and the Northern Forests to attend the Camp.

Participants took field trips with staff from the Penobscot Nation to sites where dam removals on the Penobscot River have helped to build the resilience of migratory fish from the impacts of climate change. Tribal scientists from the Penobscot Nation and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians also led field trips to locations of cultural and ecological importance to regional Tribal Nations for the purpose of learning how to protect these places. At the conclusion of the Camp, Tribal Nation teams took what was learned and presented their own ideas and strategies on addressing climate change to take home to their Tribal Nations and communities. A celebration was held at Schoodic treating Tribal attendees, Camp speakers, and staff to a Maine Lobster dinner to commemorate all that was learned and achieved at the Camp!