Native American Tribes Threatened By Climate Change To Receive $115M To Relocate

Three Native American tribes will receive $75 million from the U.S. government to relocate away from coastal areas and rivers because of the effects of climate change on their communities.

The three tribes, two in Alaska and one in Washington state, will each receive $25 million from the Interior Department to move essential buildings and infrastructure to higher ground, away from rising waters. The Interior Department is giving eight other tribes $5 million each to plan for relocation, according to the New York Times.

The spending is the latest acknowledgment by the U.S. that a growing number of places are becoming uninhabitable due to the effects of climate change. In 2016 the federal government gave a small, coastal Louisiana village $48 million to relocate due to the expansion of the Gulf of Mexico.

After years of negotiations tackling the new location for the Louisiana village, residents are just now beginning to move into their new homes, signaling the logistical difficulties of "managed retreat" from climate change effects.

Some residents who have spent their entire lives in their homes are even choosing not to move, waiting instead until they have no other choice.

Ann Penn Charles, a member of the Quileute tribe in Washington that was forced to begin relocating in 2021, said she would wait until "Mother Nature makes me move." Charles told CBS News that "we don't want to give up our land. We signed over so much land to stay here."

The tribes that were chosen to receive the $25 million were the Newtok, a village in southwest Alaska, the Napakiak, a village losing 25 to 50 feet of land each year to erosion, and the Quinault, the sole Washington tribe that is facing devastation from flooding.

The eight tribes receiving $5 million reside in Louisiana, Northern California and throughout Alaska, reports the New York Times.

The process that went into choosing these tribes was not made public, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs did apply five criteria to tribes eligible for the funds. The impending risks the tribe is facing were one, along with its readiness to move and whether they had selected a new site.