Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, March 19, 2024
America's Native tribes are getting $120 million from Team Biden to battle global warming via "indigenous knowledge."
The Department of the Interior said the taxpayer funds will be split into 146 different awards to support projects that enhance “climate resilience” in tribal communities.
“By providing these resources to tribes to plan and implement climate resilience programs in their own communities, we can better meet the needs of each community and allow them to incorporate Indigenous Knowledge when addressing climate change,” Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland said of the funding. “These resources will enable tribes to protect their ability to exist in their homelands in the face of a changing climate.”
The Daily Caller's Nick Pope noted: "The concept of 'indigenous knowledge' that Newland references is the idea that Native Americans have an inherent and cultural understanding of nature and natural processes that is on par with those informed by traditional Western science."
In October of last year, The Daily Caller reported that the Biden Administration had made more than $800 million in grant funding available for projects related to the application of “indigenous knowledge.”
For example, Team Biden has cited “Indigenous Knowledge” as “the best available science” to partially justify the cancellation of seven oil and gas leases in Alaska, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
“Indigenous communities are facing unique and intensifying climate-related challenges that pose an existential threat to tribal economies, infrastructure, lives and livelihoods,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said of the funding. “Through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, we are making transformational commitments to assist tribes and tribal organizations as they plan for and implement climate resilience measures, upholding our trust and treaty responsibilities and safeguarding these places for generations to come.”
The $120 million is made up of $26 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law, $71 million from the Inflation Reduction Act and $23 million from fiscal year 2023 appropriations.
The 146 individual awards are going to 102 tribes and nine tribal organizations. Some of the projects funded include developing plans for “climate adaptation,” construction plans for bridges and youth educational initiatives, according to the Department of the Interior.
