Context Compliments Science in Assessing Cultural, Environmental and Landscape Change: Space, Time and a Diversity of Navajo Elder Knowledge and Experiences

In recent decades, Indigenous communities have increasingly engaged in studies that combine local and traditional knowledge with conventional scientific data, often described as co-production. Interdisciplinary studies that included such knowledge were conducted on the Navajo Nation from 2002-2016. Here, we highlight that information from oral accounts can provide better understanding of environmental and socioeconomic vulnerability. However, what is considered co-production often remains an incomplete process, where some aspects of knowledge that are important in providing context may be disregarded in scientific analysis and peer-review. This work also underscores how temporal aspects of landscape sensitivity, culture, and social conditions are paramount to understanding and addressing ecological and environmental problems.

To evaluate culturally and environmentally sensitive areas to anticipate the need for climate change adaptation planning, work on the Navajo Nation focused on providing relevant information to local community-based chapter governments in the process of developing land-use plans. Rural large land-based tribal lands face challenges in planning because locally relevant environmental studies are often not available, and these regions typically have less than adequate meteorological monitoring. To assess climate variability and living conditions on the Navajo Nation, 105 tribal elders across the southwestern chapters were consulted regarding the availability and quality of water, observed weather patterns, and changes in farming and grazing practices, and local medicines. The knowledge shared by Diné elders provided a more nuanced understanding of environmental issues, many of which are due to increased aridity from warming temperatures, but also due to historic settler colonial and current land use practices.

The information provided underscored the ways in which rain and snow, wind and heat are experienced at a given location, and this augmented the collection of standard data, geologic mapping, geomorphologic and hydrologic research. This contextual understanding, while a fundamentally different way of viewing climate and weather compared to scientific meteorological observations, provided complimentary observations about ecosystem interactions and responses to local weather conditions.

Elders cited a long-term decrease in the amount of rain and snowfall over the past century, (noted in 100% of the interviews) and a decline in surface water features and water availability (85% of the interviews). These observations showed important spatial variability depending on local landscape attributes and were also tied to subsistence use of ecosystem services. The timing of observed changes was distinguishable among 1) small upland streams and washes 2) playas and sediment-rich river floodplains, and 3) culturally important springs and local groundwater sources. These areas saw a progression of changes in aridity, most notably in the mid-20^th century, with those living in smaller upland watersheds perceiving the changes first. Observations suggest that snowfall decreased markedly after the 1960s, but the oldest consultants also remember amounts of rain and snow greater in the 1920s and 1930s, during years of their adolescence to young adulthood. Typically, the earliest changes were noted by the oldest consultants (those in their 80s). The nature of observations was closely related to experience in subsistence practices (such as farming and the depth of soil moisture in the spring). Wind and dust storms are noted as occurring post 1950 and increasing in the 1990s, but these observations were only prevalent in communities occupying windswept valleys.

Disseminating and sharing elder observations in combination with corroborative scientific and historical data led to greater acknowledgement and awareness of climate change impacts, and to community discussions and formal climate adaptation planning efforts by the Navajo Nation. Outcomes from the publication of information and the responses have primarily focused on the most basic aspects of physical vulnerability. Scientifically corroborated landscape and ecosystem effects from drought and declining water availability resulted in more attentive water hauling and other efforts to increase water availability through enhancing delivery systems. These incremental changes under existing programs demonstrated a willing response to address environmental problems posed by a changing climate, but local efforts face continuing challenges due to a lack of capacity and resources, as well as a need for envisioning more transformative policies.

Local and largely unacknowledged histories of land fragmentation, intergenerational divisions, and losing access to areas with more suitable hydroclimatic conditions were also important factors identified as contributors to socioeconomic vulnerability in the context of a changing climate. Shared knowledge encompassed cultural practices that relate to current and historical socio-ecological relations of a community as well as geophysical conditions. These aspects of the consultations invariably related back to how and when reservation borders and grazing districts were established, as well as policies relating to the Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act of 1974 that led to reductions in land and resources available through the relocation of over 3,600 Navajo families. These findings present significant challenges in finding implementable adaptation solutions, especially under current federal policies and continuing climate impacts. Work within local communities to discuss and plan a path forward based on information gathered is not easily supported under the structures of today’s institutions. These findings underscore the value of localized and contextual information about climate vulnerabilities that efforts to scale up the practice of co-production have yet to recognize.

Knowledge contributions from subsistence-based peoples can significantly augment and complement conventional science methods that collect and model precipitation and temperature, to describe and plan for climate change compared to “normal” or average conditions. However, much of the information imparted requires interpretation based on the temporal and spatial nature of the observations, and their social and cultural context. The knowledge imparted from Diné (Navajo) elders exemplifies how complex interactions are framed within landscape processes, and the cultural and social challenges of addressing environmental change. Moreover, differences in perspective about the knowledge shared may not be easily judged or interpretable by the scientists who often are the de facto lead in disseminating co-produced information. Practical assessment and planning outcomes require historical, geographical and cultural understandings whereby the recognition of context is paramount for comprehensive appraisal of diverse types of information. The utility of co-production requires attentive acknowledgement of the nature in which knowledge is shared and disseminated to adequately inform resource management and envision ways of living in a climate changing world.