A group of University of Washington researchers recently published findings that indicate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has taken minimal action to include Tribal governments in their holistic approach towards disaster resilience and recovery.
The findings were published in the PLOS Climate journal and involved analyzing policy documents derived from the Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant program to assess whether FEMA has taken steps to include Tribal governments in its “Whole Community approach.”
American Indians and Alaska Native communities are more vulnerable to natural hazards and face harsh consequences as a result of natural disasters, such as destruction of traditional sources of food and medicine, contamination of food, water, and air and displacement echoing the forced relocations of the 18th and 19th centuries.
The research concluded that while FEMA continues to scale-up its operations and work with the federal government to create more equitable policies, future work needs to involve partnerships with Tribal leaders and requires less systemic barriers to inclusion going forward.