In 2023, the complexity of the environmental issues that impact Native communities took center stage. The unique legal, political and economic hurdles tribal nations face in protecting their land, water, air — and people — became vividly apparent.
Over the summer, we saw the U.S. Supreme Court reject the Navajo Nation’s attempts to hold the federal government accountable to protecting its water rights in the Colorado River Basin, while December saw the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, a landmark law with a complicated legacy in Indian Country. Meanwhile, the Biden administration, now in its third year, had a significant impact on funding tribal priorities and environmental protection.
Here’s a quick look at some of the news from 2023.
RIVERS
Across the Western U.S., rivers made headlines all year. This summer, after years of advocacy and litigation by tribal nations and conservation groups, the first — and smallest — of the four dams slated for removal on the Klamath River in Northern California came down. Then, in December, following two years of negotiating with four tribes, two states and conservation groups, the federal government announced its support for a pathway to breach the four dams on the lower reaches of the Snake River in eastern Washington — though the decision to actually remove the dams is still up to Congress.
And Lower Elwha Klallam tribal members on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula fished a free-flowing Elwha River for the first time in 112 years. Salmon recovery has been modest since the last dam came down in 2014, but this October, the tribe was finally able to engage in subsistence fishing.
LAND
Big news in “public” land management came in March and August, respectively, when President Joe Biden designated Avi Kwa Ame and Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon as national monuments. Tribes led the coalitions that campaigned for their protection, and both monuments include mechanisms for tribes to be involved in their management alongside federal agencies. Baaj Nwaavjo will have a tribal commission with representatives from tribes, modeled after the Bears Ears Intertribal Commission.
The year was also marked by increased tribal management of public lands — a priority for the Biden administration. In December, at the annual White House Tribal Nations’ Summit, the Department of Interior and Department of Agriculture announced the formation of 190 new co-management and co-stewardship agreements with tribes. While the agreements signal the federal government’s willingness to work with tribes on land management, there’s always another option — the idea of just returning the land to the tribes altogether.
CLIMATE
In November, the federal government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment, which looks at the impacts of climate change and community and government response to them, highlighted the innovative ways in which tribal nations are leading the clean energy sector as they continue to create their own climate plans. Sometimes a community’s relocation is proving necessary, as is the case with the Quinault Nation and several Alaska Native villages. The report also recognized that the U.S. government’s dispossession of Indigenous lands is one of the major reasons that tribes find themselves so vulnerable to climate change today.
Meanwhile, this year at the international COP28, an annual conference hosted by the United Nations to address climate change, world leaders agreed to transition away from fossil fuels and create a loss and damage fund for countries most impacted by climate change. But Indigenous delegates at the forum said the agreements did not go far enough in protecting their rights, especially when it comes to developing clean energy projects. In the U.S., conflicts between tribes, the federal government and industry have arisen involving mining on land that’s sensitive or significant to tribes, at places like Oak Flat in Arizona and Thacker Pass in Nevada. The minerals produced at these mines could help supply solar and electric cars and support clean energy. However, the way they and similar projects are being developed smacks of “green colonialism,” tribal observers and critics say.
FORESTS
A rare report on the health of Indian forest lands was published this fall by the Intertribal Timber Council, a nonprofit nationwide consortium of Alaska Native corporations, tribal nations and other partners. The Indian Forest Management Assessment Team report drew little public attention, but it shows that about 80% of Native-held forests are now independently managed by tribal nations through a form of forestry self-governance, with the remaining 20% or so managed with the Bureau of Indian Affairs — a complete reversal of the situation since the first report was released in 1993. The report highlights the tribes’ dire need of funding to hire more people to steward forests correctly, citing problems with wildfire and invasive tree-killing insects, as well as the need to better manage forest density, among other concerns. For the first time, a female Indigenous researcher and co-chair, Sierra Hoagland (Laguna Pueblo), worked on this year’s report, a move that ITC leadership hopes highlights leadership opportunities for women in the forestry industry.
Way back at the beginning of the year, the Biden administration reinstated a 2001 roadless rule that the Trump administration had previously canned, meaning that the Tongass National Forest in Alaska is once again protected from potential extractive activities. And just last week, the USDA introduced a first-of-its-kind amendment aimed at prioritizing the conservation and care of old-growth forests in 128 forest management plans, citing the 2001 rule as the basis for its decision. The agency also committed to using Indigenous knowledge, along with other scientific findings, in its management of old-growth forests.
EXTRACTION IN ALASKA
Extraction in Alaska continues to raise questions over how the federal government is supposed to uphold tribal interests in the face of other concerns. On the one hand, the administration approved the Willow drilling project despite strong Indigenous opposition, while on the other, it canceled oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and proposed new protections for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. As with green energy development, these moves drew attention to the need for Native communities to have first and prior informed consent on issues that take place on or impact their lands.
WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON
The Biden administration is continuing its efforts to reform the ways in which Indigenous concerns are reflected in land management. Earlier this month, the Office of Personnel Management and the Interior Department announced that all federal employees would undergo new training on reserved rights and treaty rights to bring them up to speed on trust obligations and best practices regarding tribal consultation. The National Park Service also announced that it would undertake a study of the Indian Reorganization Period (1934-1950), a period that was marked by disjointed federal efforts to reinforce tribal sovereignty and increased awareness of Native affairs. The study could affect future historic landmarks or land preservation efforts, as well as promote public awareness and understanding.
President Biden has brought a record number of Indigenous leaders into his Cabinet, and his administration has had a marked impact on improving federal funding for Indigenous communities and the federal policies that protect them. But with a presidential election looming in 2024, all that could change: Given the outsized role that the federal government and the executive branch play in determining how the U.S. deals with tribal nations, the outcome is bound to have a major impact on Native communities. It’s an open question whether the federal government, with or without Biden’s involvement, will continue its historic strides in supporting tribal sovereignty at the highest levels, but Native voters are likely to play an important role in the election.
Anna V. Smith is an associate editor of High Country News. She writes and edits stories on tribal sovereignty and environmental justice for the Indigenous Affairs desk from Colorado.
Shana Lombard is a High Country News intern. An enrolled member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, she lives in Tacoma, Washington.
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