Samish Indian Nation – 2017 Project

NOTE: Project pages are being updated regularly to reflect changes, if any; however, some of the information may be dated.

Summary

The Samish Indian Nation will address the issues of resilience related to extreme weather hazards by creating a resiliency plan. It will also build on the successes of a U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs-funded capacity-building project that aimed to prepare the Tribe for resilience planning. The Samish Resiliency Plan will be based on community values and the best available science, and it will be integrated into planning documents across all tribal programs.

The Samish Indian Nation is a federally recognized tribe in Washington State with traditional territory in and around the Salish Sea. Today, the Samish Indian Nation is made up of 1,796 enrolled members. Practicing good stewardship of tribal land and resources is an integral part of its people. This cultural imperative is reflected in the Tribe’s planning documents and Tribal Energy Vision.

In 2004, the Tribe adopted an Energy Vision that reflected a focus on meeting the immediate health, economic, environmental, and social needs of its membership. This Vision continues to guide energy decisions and planning more than a decade later.

In meeting the immediate needs of Samish people in terms of health care, access to education, shelter, and economic stability, tribal members and leaders agree that they must focus more energy toward “seven-generation” planning. In 2015, the Samish Indian Nation recognized a need to increase tribal resiliency by mainstreaming weather mitigation and adaptation actions throughout its program management plans. In 2016, the Tribe secured funding for a project designed to build the capacity within its natural resources department to develop a plan according to community values and the best-available environmental data and models. This project will take advantage of increased capacity and continue the efforts of the Tribe.

This project will help the Samish Indian Nation achieve resiliency by identifying priority planning areas based on scientific data on current and potential weather impacts, defining resiliency goals, and incorporating weather mitigation and adaptation actions into program-level management plans.

The goal of the project is to increase the Samish Indian Nation’s resiliency by creating a Samish Resiliency Plan to be mainstreamed across all tribal programs. This will allow the Tribe to maintain its commitment to the Samish Energy Vision through the environmental changes it expects to see in the next seven generations.

The proposed project will hire a full-time Samish Resilience Specialist to join the Samish Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and work with the Samish Climate Resilience Working Group to increase Samish resiliency over the two years of the project. The Resilience Specialist will work with DNR’s Climate Adaptation Assistant and Geographic Information System (GIS) Database Analyst to compile the data needed to complete an adaptation plan, perform risk and vulnerability assessments, and provide technical support to the Working Group in its decision-making and planning efforts. The Resilience Specialist will work with the Working Group to draft a Samish Resiliency Plan that will be presented to the Tribal Council for approval. After the plan is approved by the Tribal Council, the Resilience Specialist will work with Tribal Program Managers to mainstream resilience planning across all tribal programs. 

The Samish Indian Nation is a federally recognized tribe in Washington State with traditional territory in and around the Salish Sea. This project will serve all 1,796 members of the Samish Indian Nation by helping mitigate and increasing prepare for the impacts of weather change across all tribal functions. Increasing tribal preparedness will have a positive impact on tribal health and wellness, tribal facilities, tribal programs and services, traditional territories, and cultural landscapes and resources that are fundamental to tribal values.

The project is complete. For details, see the final report.

The project was competitively selected under the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy Fiscal Year 2016 funding opportunity announcement “First Steps Toward Developing Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency on Tribal Lands – 2016” (DE-FOA-0001621) and started in August 2017.

The November 2017 and December 2018 project status report provides more information.