Arctic Peoples

by Clive Tesar

Arctic leaders touring the United States with their eyewitness messages of climate change shared their stories with local Indigenous Peoples yesterday. The exchange came during a tour stop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The audience at a public meeting in a Presbyterian church included local Anishnabe people, and also some descendants of Saami people who had come to hear Saami Council Vice President Olav Mathis Eira.

Clyde Belcourt, a local Anishnabe elder, spoke of the local impacts of climate change that Indigenous Peoples in Minnesota are seeing. He mentioned a drop in water levels that is affecting the spawning beds of local fish such as walleye. Even more importantly, the low water levels are threatening the habitat of the wild rice, a traditional crop that is not only economically important to local people, but also has great cultural significance. Read the rest of this entry »