This research project documented the Native American cultural traditions in the Duckwater Shoshone and the Paiute tribes’ responses to climate change in the Great Basin region. Aspects of tribal culture often include fish, wildlife, or plants as central images or main symbolic figures. Because climate change affects the presence, abundance and patterns of distribution of animals and plants, it is important to analyze behaviors connected to those resources. This project carried out research pertaining to the effects of climate on aspects of the environment and resources relevant to these two Great Basin tribes, leading to insights regarding possible responses of tribal culture to focal animals and plants that, in turn, are exposed and responding to changes in climate. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) was used to guide and complete the research.
Tribes are disproportionately affected by climate change because their economies and traditions are heavily reliant on placebased natural resources. Because natural resources are integral to Native populations’ identity and central to many cultural practices, changes in these resources may result in associated shifts and adaptations in tribal cultural traditions. The study provides a novel perspective that examines tribal cultural traditions where the traditional behaviors and patterns are possibly being impacted by climate change. The natural resources for tribal communities are being exposed to shifts in climate. For these two tribes, the primary concerns included changes they had observed in surrounding mountains, which hold special significance for many reasons; changes in abundance and timing of key resources like carp, jackrabbit and wild celery; and changes in the water cycle.
The results of this study align with other TEK information that natural resources in the great Basin regions are held in relevance tandem with seasons and TEK timing events, as has been described through oral traditional methods. Additionally, traditional behaviors rely on TEK information, but in a time of environmental change, it is sometimes difficult to know how to use and how to alter TEK, which was developed over centuries in conditions quite different from those in the near future or even those occurring now.
