Indigenous Rights and Effective Climate Resilience: A Case Study of the Federally “Terminated” Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe and Effective Management of Climate Vulnerabilities in Northern California, USA

This case study investigates the relationships between contemporary climate-related environmental vulnerabilities, including wildfires, water resources, and environmental toxicity, and the destruction of Indigenous lives, sovereignty, and culture in Nevada County, Northern California (CA), United States. Through examining the case of the federally “terminated” (unrecognized) Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe (NCRNT), we argue that contemporary climate vulnerabilities experienced in California are directly tied to the state’s history of genocide against Indigenous people. Adapting to and building resilience against these vulnerabilities thereby necessitates addressing historical injustices that cause these vulnerabilities. In other words, effective responses to climate change must be rooted in both environmental and social justice.

To support these claims, we take a historically-informed approach to analyzing the relationships between current climate vulnerabilities and social conflict, and provide detailed discussion and evidence of how the NCRNT is directly forging internal and community resilience and social cohesion via a range of legal, social, and economic activities. For instance, the NCRNT has forged climate resilience by preserving Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) through oral histories, which has enabled the resurrection of TEK for combating wildfires and other environmental issues today. By creating a non-profit arm, the NCRNT has also been able to establish a formal ongoing relationship with a land trust and forge strong collaborative relationships with the non-native community to promote sustainable land management practices. Beyond environmental resilience, the NCRNT has promoted broader dynamics of peace and social cohesion in Nevada County. Namely, strong leadership skills within the Tribe have created opportunities for restorative justice and conflict prevention. Lastly, the NCRNT’s high level of financial sustainability is critical to their ability to continue resilience and social cohesion efforts in the absence of resources afforded to them via federal recognition.

This study is part of a larger applied participatory research project that investigates the environment-fragility-peace nexus through fifteen comparative global case studies conducted by CDA Collaborative Learning Projects in partnership with local and international organizations. The NCRNT case study was developed in collaboration with the NCRNT’s non-profit arm, the California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP), and members of the local community of Nevada County, CA. Findings are in part based on oral history interviews conducted by the lead researchers with members of the NCRNT and non-native community members. Findings are also informed by data that emerged from a day-long workshop with Tribal members and elders, community members, researchers, and local civil society to define and elaborate on the links between climate impacts, conflict, capacities for social cohesion, and climate resilience. This report also engages with existing secondary literature on the Tribe and climate vulnerabilities, as well as key literature regarding political ecology and Indigenous people, climate change and indigeneity, Indigenous forest management and burning practices, peacebuilding and Indigenous people, and more specifically Indigenous environmental peacebuilding.