Indigenous Approaches to Contemporary Climate Change

Abstract

Abstract Sea level rise, drought, mudslides, and other extreme conditions stemming from climate change are impacting and will increasingly impact ancestral places. Even though these impacts are increasing in severity at an alarming rate, the rush by agencies, archaeologists, and land managers to design and implement treatment plans to address this need should be done in collaboration with Indigenous communities. This chapter discusses examples from coastal California in the United States of America and the “caregiver” model as a framework for assessing the appropriateness of various technologies and strategies for stewarding ancestral places and cultural heritage. This model is rooted in community-engaged, Indigenous, and heart-centered research that aligns with the perspectives and desires of Indigenous communities within compliance and academic archaeologies. Essential to this model is the use of low-impact and noninvasive methods for stewarding Indigenous sites and ancestral places, including the use of technologies such as GPS/GIS, terrestrial LiDAR, and Ground Penetrating Radar.