A Disposable People Climate Change and
Indigenous Rights
Photo credit: Yulia Nesterova, Impakter
By Brianna Zhang Along the vast Louisiana coastline in the American Deep South, saltwater creeps inland, foot by foot, into territory occupied by indigenous tribes. In recent decades, the ocean has swallowed farmland and stolen hunting areas; for the indigenous tribes that rely on these lands to survive, there have been massive consequences. The United States is now home to its first group of environmental migrants, with the quickening effects of climate change making certain that there will be more. In the coastal Southern state of Louisiana, climate change is dramatically altering the landscape and territory in which many indigenous groups reside. By 2050, scientists predict that rising sea levels will eradicate a portion of Louisiana’s coastline the size of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. The impending disaster is destroying indigenous peoples’ special connection to their land, affecting their cultural practices, their means of living, and their community cohesion. Unlike other marginalized groups in the United States, indigenous peoples have a special connection to their ancestral homeland. “When it comes 5
Spring 2020 / Perennial
to indigenous rights, there’s always a direct connection between an indigenous population and the land they claim as their homeland,” Professor Darren Zook, a lecturer in human rights at the University of California, Berkeley, explained, “indigenous identity is actually drawn from the land.” For generations, indigenous populations have relied on their water and land not only as ties to their ancestors, but also to feed and sustain their people. The website of Louisiana’s United Houma Nation features the following quote: “The United Houma Nation today is composed of a very proud and independent people who have close ties to the water and land of their ancestors.” Therefore, when the effects of climate change begin to alter the land, there are drastic effects on the community and culture as well. In Louisiana, a coastal state, indigenous groups mainly rely on fishing, hunting, and farming to live. With recent and rapid changes in the landscape, two groups in particular have seen their ways of life disrupted with important consequences for tribal sovereignty and cultural preservation. The United Houma Nation in particular has maintained a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and economy
