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Indigenous communities in the United States have experienced a long history of land displacement, disrupted food systems, and inadequate federal services, which have contributed to nutrition-related health disparities. Initiatives to support Indigenous agriculture may help address these injustices, yet little is known about the agricultural crop suitability of tribal lands, especially under future climate conditions. This study fills this gap by developing geoclimatic forecasting models that quantify the agricultural potential of all 24 first-contact tribal lands in Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. Geoclimatic models included stationary variables (soil texture, salinity, drainage, and pH; elevation; and slope) and dynamic variables (monthly and annual precipitation, and monthly temperature). Tribal representatives and community leaders were partners in this research to protect Indigenous data sovereignty, ensure cultural relevance of the research design, and provide tribe-specific data on land delineations. By 2040, optimal agricultural land was predicted to decrease by 27% (1,525 km 2 ) and the number of culturally relevant crop species was predicted to decrease by 36% (from 11 to 7). These findings provide context for policy initiatives that have emerged or accelerated to restore environmentally sensitive agricultural areas, support new and existing Indigenous food producers, and strengthen consumer markets for Indigenous food products.

The decarbonization of the electricity sector is leading to a substantial increase in the demand for wind energy. Will tribal nations, which account for 7.8% of utility-scale wind capacity, benefit from this policy shift? To examine why tribal nations vary in translating wind energy potential into wind installed capacity, we have constructed an original dataset of the potential as well as the location of wind turbines across tribal nations. Our statistical analysis of 286 tribal nations suggests that wind energy potential is not associated with wind installed capacity. Instead, casino square footage, a proxy for tribal nation’s administrative capacity and business acumen, is associated with wind installed capacity. Political orientation plays a role as well: tribal nations are more likely to have wind installed capacity when they value tribal sovereignty. While tribes suffering from natural disasters do not install more wind turbines, those receiving federal grants for wind energy projects, and located in states that already have a substantial number of wind turbines, are more apt to have wind turbines. Surprisingly, tribes located in states with renewable portfolio standards do not show an association with installed wind turbines capacity.

Background/Objectives: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) improves the health of nutritionally at-risk populations. However, engagement challenges, such as missed appointments and unredeemed food benefits, may limit program efficacy. Barriers to engagement are heightened among American Indian populations, who often experience disproportionately high levels of participation-related challenges. This study assessed whether newly developed health communication theory-based text messages incorporating persuasive language and different message framing (i.e., gain-framed and loss-framed) improved WIC appointment attendance and food benefit redemption rates, above and beyond standard information-based reminders. Methods: The sample included participants served by the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona WIC between the months of September 2022 and February 2023 who (a) had an appointment during the intervention period (n = 7584) or (b) were eligible to receive a reminder text about unused food benefits during the intervention period (n = 2177). A three-phase intervention design was used, with each phase lasting six weeks. During the baseline phase, participants received standard information-based text messages, while during the two intervention phases, participants received newly developed messages using (1) gain-framed and (2) loss-framed persuasive language. Difference-in-difference regression analyses compared whether differences in outcomes (i.e., appointment attendance and monthly food benefit redemption rates) between participants who received reminder messages and those who did not differed over intervention phases. Results: Receipt of both gain-framed and loss-framed theory-based messages was associated with higher appointment attendance, when compared to receipt of standard information-based messages during baseline (p = 0.003 and p = 0.01, respectively). Neither the gain-framed nor loss-framed messages were associated with higher food benefit redemption rates than standard messages. Conclusions: Results indicated that persuasive communication theory-based text reminders may be an effective, low-cost strategy to boost WIC appointment attendance among American Indians.

The legacy of a palaeontology expedition into Native American lands 150 years ago should prompt a rethink of where and how fossil collections are curated. The legacy of a palaeontology expedition into Native American lands 150 years ago should prompt a rethink of where and how fossil collections are curated.

We highlight the historical and contemporary policies that govern paleontological research on federally recognized Native American lands. The United States has a long history of fossil dispossession from Indigenous Peoples, and federal policies surrounding the management of Native American lands (i.e., reservations), and the geological resources therein, have changed through time. These changes reflect shifting popular and political ideologies regarding Native American nations' sovereignty and self-governance. As of 2022, the United States has a government-to-government relationship with federally recognized Tribal entities, but that has not always been the case. Historians have divided post-contact Native American federal policy into distinct eras: Colonial Times to 1820, Native American Removal and Reservation (1820–1887), Allotments and Attempted Assimilation (1887–1934), Reorganization and Preservation (1934–1953), Termination and Relocation (1953–1968), and Tribal Self-Determination (1968–present). Documentation of how the federal policies from each of these eras continue to impact current paleontological research is limited. We summarize major legislative actions, court cases, and historical events that have affected paleontological resource management in Native American territory. We use this historical context to identify federal policy gaps and highlight legal nuances associated with fossil collection and ownership, particularly given the importance of fossils to some Native Americans' cultural patrimony. Finally, we explore how these gaps affect scientific research and highlight best practices for conducting paleontological research on vertebrate, invertebrate, and paleobotanical body and trace fossils using the CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) Principles for Indigenous Data Governance (https://www.gida-global.org/care).

Despite centuries of genocidal assimilation and forced removal, Indigenous communities in the United States have persevered and even thrived. A key driver of economic success for many tribes is gambling. While states objected, perhaps out of greed, the Supreme Court held that, as sovereign governments, gaming operations on tribal land were largely beyond the reach of state governments and law enforcement. The Supreme Court's Cabazon decision furthered a congressional push to develop a negotiated solution to recognize Indigenous communities' rights as sovereigns while balancing states' desire to limit the volume of gambling taking place within their borders. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was the congressionally agreed upon balance. While the statute undoubtedly stripped tribal sovereignty, few statutes have developed an economic framework so powerful for lifting up hundreds of communities. The legacy of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is an industry that has $40 billion in annual revenue and has developed an expertise that is sought around the world. Now, the tribal gaming industry faces extinction. While commercial operators have spent the last two decades preparing for the move from brickand-mortar to online gaming, tribal gaming is hamstrung by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act's requirement that all gaming take place on \"Indian lands.\" Federally recognized gaming tribes now face a choice between access and sovereignty. Some tribes around the country have chosen access, often giving up some sovereignty protected by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Other tribes have placed sovereignty above market access and chosen to sit out online gambling while commercial operators move into the market. The choice now facing many tribes is one that they never should have been forced to make. This Article argues that, while Congress 's inaction and failure to modernize the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act has put Native American communities around the country at significant risk, it is not too late to implement changes to modernize the Act. This Article posits that, with a stroke of the pen, Congress could permit communities on Indian land to compact for online gaming under the Act and ease the process by which tribes acquire land that can be used for gaming operations. Congress also has the power to amend the statute to incentivize state cooperation with tribal nations to negotiate gaming compacts, a key tool within the statute that was struck down in 1996. Congressional inaction raises the prospect of a bleak future for the economic security of many tribes, but unlike some of the looming crises facing the United States, there is still time to rectify the situation before dire consequences spread.

Researchers have debated the relative importance of environmental versus Indigenous effects on past fire regimes in eastern North America. Tree-ring fire-scar records (FSRs) provide local-resolution physical evidence of past fire, but few studies have spatially correlated fire frequency from FSRs with environmental and anthropogenic variables. No study has compared FSR locations to Native American settlement features in the eastern United States. We assess whether FSRs in the eastern US are located near regions of past Native American settlement. We also assess relationships between distance to Native American settlement, environmental conditions, and fire frequency in central Pennsylvania (PA), US, using an “ensemble of small models” approach for low sample sizes. Regression models of fire frequency at 21 locations in central PA often selected distance-based proxies of Indigenous land use. Models with mean annual temperature and Native American variables as predictors explained > 70% of the variation in fire frequency. Alongside temperature and wind speed, “distance to nearest trail” and “mean distance to nearest town” were significant and important predictors. In 18th-century central PA, fires were more frequent near Indigenous trails and towns, and further south due to increasing temperature and pyrophilic vegetation. However, for the entire eastern US, FSRs are located far from past settlement, limiting their effectiveness in detecting fire patterns near population centers. Improving understanding of historical fire will require developing FSRs closer to past Native American settlement.

This paper provides an overview of climate change impacts on tribal water resources and the subsequent cascading effects on the livelihoods and cultures of American Indians and Alaska Natives living on tribal lands in the U.S. A hazards and vulnerability framework for understanding these impacts is first presented followed by context on the framework components, including climate, hydrologic, and ecosystem changes (i.e. hazards) and tribe-specific vulnerability factors (socioeconomic, political, infrastructural, environmental, spiritual and cultural), which when combined with hazards lead to impacts. Next regional summaries of impacts around the U.S. are discussed. Although each tribal community experiences unique sets of impacts because of their individual history, culture, and geographic setting, many of the observed impacts are common among different groups and can be categorized as impacts on—1) water supply and management (including water sources and infrastructure), 2) aquatic species important for culture and subsistence, 3) ranching and agriculture particularly from climate extremes (e.g., droughts, floods), 4) tribal sovereignty and rights associated with water resources, fishing, hunting, and gathering, and 5) soil quality (e.g., from coastal and riverine erosion prompting tribal relocation or from drought-related land degradation). The paper finishes by highlighting potentially relevant research questions based on the five impact categories.

More than 40% of the U.S. public water supply comes from groundwater. In the semiarid southwestern United States, where surface water can be scarce and drought conditions make these sources unreliable, groundwater is an important source of drinking water for many people. For example, in northeastern Arizona, groundwater delivers up to 60% of the public water supply. In sparsely populated areas where the cost-to-benefit ratio makes it challenging to develop water infrastructure, unregulated wells and springs are important water sources. However, these sources carry a heavy risk of contamination. Tribal lands are especially affected by the risk of drinking contaminated water, and in many cases testing is absent altogether, as Mok et al. write in this issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. The Navajo Nation is a case in point of the water-related challenges faced by Tribes. Nearly half of the 300,000 members of the Navajo Tribe live on the Reservation,6 which spreads over parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The Navajo Nation has one of the world's largest uranium reserves on its lands.

Although anthropogenic climate change is causing increased wildfire activity in the United States (US), humans are also an important ignition source. Humans cause a surge in wildfire ignitions every 4 th of July (Independence Day in the US) through the use of fireworks. We examine the 4 th of July peak in fireworks-caused wildfire ignitions and show that their spatial distribution varies but has been heavily concentrated in the west and north central US and predominantly on tribal lands. Further, we show that the weekly timing of the 4 th of July influences both the number and weekly distribution structure of fireworks-caused ignitions. We interpret these weekly and daily-scale distribution patterns of fireworks-caused ignitions to reflect the influences of human behavioral variations, culture, and fireworks regulations. For example, our analysis suggests that weekends and religious days of rest (e.g., Saturday, Sunday) have a dampening effect on the number on wildfire ignitions due to fireworks, and that weekends and the timing of work holidays likely impact the weekly distribution of fireworks-caused ignitions. Additionally, comparisons of fireworks-caused ignitions before and after the 4 th of July at the daily and weekly scale likely reflect the efficacy of firework sales regulations and human behavioral tendencies towards pre-holiday impulsiveness. Given the predictability of the fireworks-caused ignitions and rising costs of wildfire mitigation, these results have several important management and policy implications.