The last of the glacier melted nine years ago, warming the river and distressing the salmon, said Justine James, a cultural historian who specializes in timber, fish and wildlife for the Quinault Environmental Protection Department. The summer runoff from Anderson glacier in the Olympic mountains northeast of the reservation once cooled the Quinault river system. She’s also considering a lawsuit against big oil companies she believes should help pay the tab for climate-damage mitigation. The measure would make it the first tribe in the United States to price carbon. To finance a relocation of some tribe members, she plans to propose a carbon tax for companies doing business on the reservation, which features rich timberlands and a port. In addition to lobbying for more federal support, Sharp has set her sights on industries that contribute to climate damage. That’s not much when spread among more than 500 tribes, said Sharp, who has made climate change the top issue in her newly acquired additional role as president of the National Congress of American Indians, which represents 535 registered tribes. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs provides $10 million a year for tribal climate resilience planning nationwide, and FEMA provides another $20 million to tribes under a fund to protect communities from natural disasters.
Tribes are ill-equipped to adapt their reservations to increasing threats from storms, flooding, drought and wildfires because their communities are typically poor and because federal programs offer scant support.
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