Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change: The Keys to Our Resilient Future

Originally from Boston, Amira Madison was raised on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. She is an enrolled citizen of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah and currently sits as Councilwoman on Tribal Council. She serves as the Secretary for the recently formed Aquinnah Land Initiative, Inc. and is a member of the Wampanoag Consulting Alliance (WCA).

Over the years she’s worked hard to serve Indigenous communities in many different capacities. She was the Tribal Youth Coordinator for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah, a Docent at the Aquinnah Cultural Center, and served two consecutive terms as the Female Co-President of United National Indian Tribal Youth, Inc. (UNITY). Before starting this role, she served as the first Supporting Indigenous Communities Program Manager for the City of Boston in the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics and the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet. Madison graduated from Northeastern University with a BA in History and a minor in International Affairs.

Hartman Deetz has been active in environmental and cultural stewardship for over 20 years. This stewardship is based on his spiritual foundation in his Native traditions that value the Earth as a living being. He is also returning to his work with the Wampanoag Language Reclamation Program as a student and teacher. Deetz is a traditional artist as well as a singer and dancer, having shown his art in galleries, and performed for audiences from coast to coast across the US.

He is currently engaged with advocacy work for the Charles River Watershed Association advocating for the health and restoration of the Charles River and other campaigns around Native rights to access waterways.
 

Wallace Cleaves is Associate Dean and Director of the University Writing Program at UC Riverside and has also served as Director of the California Center for Native Nations. A member of the Gabrieleno/Tongva Tribe, the Indigenous peoples of the Los Angeles region, he has held numerous leadership roles, including serving on the Tribal Council, on the board of the Kuruvungna Springs Foundation, and as president of the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy.

His recent publications include the 13th edition of St. Martin’s Guide to Writing; “Mission Project: Activism on a Smaller Scale”; “Native Land Acknowledgments Are Not the Same As Land”; “A Parable of Things that Crawl and Fly” in Pulp Literature; and the essay “From Monmouth to Madoc to Māori: The Myth of Medieval Colonization and an Indigenous Alternative” in the Indigenous Futures and Medieval Pasts issue of English Language Notes.

Juliette A. Jackson, J.D., LLM, is an enrolled member of the Klamath Tribes and an Associate Attorney at Henkels Law, LLC, provisionally licensed in Oregon. Her career has focused on public health policy and tribal environmental justice, including work at several nonprofits and government agencies. As a law clerk with the U.S. EPA Honors Law Clerk Program, she drafted the section on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in a proposed national policy on sustainability.

Her recent law review article, Stop Killing the Klamath: Rights of Nature Protections with Tribal Law, the National Historic Preservation Act, and Collaborative Management Strategies for a Tribe on the Front Lines of Climate Change (UNM Tribal Law Journal), is a significant contribution to the field of tribal environmental justice. The piece examines colonial land-use practices, Western legal frameworks, and the Klamath Tribes’ efforts to protect sacred fish species and ecosystems through traditional stewardship and climate adaptation strategies.

Jackson’s work has been recognized widely, including coverage on the Federal Indian Law and Tribal Law blog Turtle Talk and a spotlight by George Washington University Law School. She has presented her research at diverse venues such as Ecuador’s Rights of Nature Conference, Google’s Native American Heritage Month Event, the Bioneers Conference, and the Mashpee Wampanoag Rights of Nature Symposium. Her insights will also reach new audiences through the upcoming Young & Indigenous podcast.

Born, raised and remain on ancestral homelands in Mashpee, MA. Talia works endlessly in and for her Wampanoag Community through youth cultural programs, traditional song and dance, and video production story telling. Her current projects focus on cultural revitalization, land rematriation, and rights of nature. She is the Elected Secretary of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council, youth advisor for Mashpee Native Environmental Ambassadors and President of the Mashpee Wampanoag Community Development Corporation. Mother, auntie, and culture keeper, Talia’s passion lies in her culture and family. Her mission is supporting and instilling Indigenous values for the future generations continued existence.

Don, a member of the Klamath Tribes, currently lives with his wife Mary on their family property on Dockney Flat, near Chiloquin, Oregon. 

Don was elected Vice Chairman of the Klamath Tribes in 2010, and Chairman in 2013, and served on the Klamath Tribal Council twelve years until May of 2022. Prior to serving on the Klamath Tribal Council, he worked for the Klamath Tribes Natural Resource Department for twenty-five years where he served as the Klamath Tribes Natural Resources Specialist. After retiring from the Tribal Council, he was again hired as the Klamath Tribes Natural Resources Specialist in January 2023.

Don worked in fire control for the U.S. Forest Service on the Fremont/Winema National Forest in 1973-1974 and 1981-1983. In addition to his experience as a tribal hunter, fisherman, and cultural practitioner, as the Klamath Tribes Natural Resource Specialist, he received formal training and gained practical field experience in fish and wildlife population and habitat assessment and monitoring, water quantity and quality monitoring, and forest and stream restoration project planning and management.