WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will grant three Indigenous tribes $75 million to relocate from coastal or riverine areas, in one of the nation’s largest efforts to date to relocate communities in need. face the urgent threat of climate change.
Three communities — two in Alaska and one in Washington State — will each receive $25 million to move their significant buildings to higher ground and away from rising waters, with the expectation that houses will follow. The federal government will give the eight tribes an additional $5 million each to plan for relocation.
“I got goosebumps when I found out I got that money,” said Joseph John Jr., a council member in Newtok, a village in southwestern Alaska where the land is rapidly eroding. It will receive $25 million to relocate inland. “It will mean a lot to us.”
The project, funded by the Department of the Interior, is a recognition that a growing number of places across the United States are no longer protected from the changes brought about by a warming planet. Officials said the spending is intended to create a blueprint for the federal government to help other communities, Indigenous as well as non-tribals, move away from vulnerable areas. , the officials said.
“There are tribal communities at risk of being swept away,” President Biden said Wednesday afternoon at a gathering of tribal leaders. The new funding will help tribes “in some cases, move their entire communities back to safer ground,” he said.
Whole-community resettlement, sometimes called managed retreat, is perhaps the most positive form of adaptation to climate change. Although the initial costs are high, relocation can save money in the long run, by reducing the extent of damage from future disasters, along with the cost of rebuilding after those disasters.
But relocation is also disruptive. In 2016, the Obama administration give Louisiana $48 million for resettlement small coastal village of Isle de Jean Charles, which has lost most of its land to the Gulf of Mexico. Resident struggle to agree where should the new village be built; it was not until this year that people started moving into their new homes.
Another challenge is deciding where to get help first. This year, Bureau of Indian Affairs hold a contest, in which tribal states have applied for resettlement payments of up to $3 million. Of the 11 tribes that applied, only year received funding; The bureau would not say how it had decided which tribes would help with resettlement.
The $25 million award, announced Wednesday, will fund a significant portion of the relocation costs, subject to a more non-transparent process. According to officials, there is no application process. Instead, the Bureau of Indian Affairs looks at tribes that have planned some degree of resettlement and applies five criteria, including the level of risk they currently face. , whether they have chosen a new location to move to and their willingness to move.
Some experts expressed concern about how the Home Office decides which tribes to help with resettlement.
Samantha L. Montano, a professor of emergency management at the Massachusetts Maritime Institute, said the lack of a formal application process for the latest resettlement grants “makes me feel unfairly when making funding decisions with such important implications.
Dr Montano added: “Every community faces some kind of climate risk and will need federal support to mitigate that risk. “There is no clear plan for how those funding decisions will be made in effective, efficient, or equitable ways.”
In addition to Newtok, other tribes receiving $25 million are the Napakiak, a village on the banks of the Kuskokwim River that is losing 25 to 50 feet of land each year to erosion, and the Quinault Indian Nation, on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, whose main town, Taholah, faces The risk of flooding is increasing.
The Quinault nation has chosen a new site on higher ground, said Fawn Sharp, the country’s vice president. She said the new money will be used to build a community center, which will also house a wellness and fitness center and host general council meetings. The structure will also serve as an emergency evacuation center.
Sharp, who is also president of the National Congress of American Indians, said the $25 million would represent about a quarter of the total cost of the Quinault resettlement project.
“For years, our pleas seemed to go unheard of,” Ms. Sharp said. With the new money, she said, “they’re paying attention to us.”
The other eight tribes will receive $5 million each to consider whether to relocate and begin planning for relocation if they decide to do so. They include the Chitimacha Tribe, of Louisiana; Yurok tribe, in Northern California; and other Aboriginal villages in Alaska.
Bryan Newland, assistant secretary for Indian affairs at the Home Office, said the federal government needs to learn how to help resettle communities that want to move. The new funding will be an opportunity for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to learn how to coordinate its resettlement efforts with other agencies working in the disaster recovery area, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Federal Emergency Management.
Mr Newland, a resident of the Bay Mills Indian Community, said: “Due to the impact of climate change, unfortunately this work is needed. “We have to make sure that the tribes can continue to exist and continue their way of life.”
