Federal government is giving millions to Natives for 'managed retreat' from areas threatened by climate change

The village of Napakiak, Alaska, which is losing land to
erosion. (Photo by Emily Farnsworth, U.S. Air Force, via AP)

Three Native American tribes will receive $25 million each to relocate to higher ground because their settlements are threatened by global warming. The awards are "one of the nation’s largest efforts to date to relocate communities that are facing an urgent threat from climate change," reports Christopher Flavelle of The New York Times.

"Three communities — two in Alaska, and one in Washington state — will each get $25 million to move their key buildings onto higher ground and away from rising waters, with the expectation that homes will follow," Flavelle reports. "The federal government will give eight more tribes $5 million each to plan for relocation."

“It gave me goose bumps when I found out we got that money,” Joseph John Jr., a council member in Newtok, a village in southwest Alaska, told Flavelle. The land around Newtok is vanishing and the tribe will receive receive $25 million to relocate inland.

"Relocating whole communities, sometimes called 'managed retreat', is perhaps the most aggressive form of adaptation to climate change," Flavelle writes. "Despite the high initial cost, relocation may save money in the long run, by reducing the amount of damage from future disasters, along with the cost of rebuilding after those disasters."

Deciding who gets money when can be difficult. "This year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs held a contest, in which tribal nations applied for up to $3 million in relocation money," Flavelle reports. "Of the 11 tribes that applied, only five received funding; the bureau would not say how it had decided which tribes to help relocate." 

Officials acknowledge they have a learning curve. Bryan Newland, assistant Interior secretary for Indian affairs, told Flavelle, "The federal government needs to learn how to help relocate communities that want to move. The new funding will be a chance for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to learn to coordinate its relocation efforts with other agencies that work on disaster recovery, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency."

In addition to Newtok, the other tribes to receive $25 million were Napakiak, a village on the shore of the Kuskokwim River that is losing 25 to 50 feet of land each year to erosion, and the Quinault Indian Nation, on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, whose main town, Taholah, faces a growing risk of flooding, Eight other tribes will get $5 million each to consider whether to relocate and to begin planning for relocation if they decide to do so. They include the Chitimacha Tribe, in Louisiana; the Yurok Tribe, in Northern California; and other Native villages in Alaska.