The Rising Tide: Native American Heritage at Risk Due to Climate Change

 Archaeological sites provide us clues to the past. These clues provide us with information we may otherwise never know. For example, evidence at these sites can provide clues to what prehistoric indeginous people were eating, what their houses looked like, population size, how they buried and memorialized their dead, and what tools they used. Often, these sites are the only clues we have of these previous occupants. Many of these sites in Florida exist at or below the current sea level and many of these sites exist along the coastline, where resources would have been abundant. Statewide, more than 16,000 archaeological sites are at risk due to climate change. In the Big Bend Region, this includes over 540 Native American archaeological sites. These sites include occupation and encampment sites, middens (refuse piles), resource extraction sites, mound, and burial sites. 

Many people are under the impression that Florida doesn’t have much archaeology or that its history does not span far back. In fact, Florida’s history spans over 14,000 years from what archaeologists know currently! Indeginous cultures in Florida were constructing mounds before the Egyptians were constructing pyramids! We can learn so much from these sites, including how indeginous people coped with previous sea level events. Archaeologists know that climate change and sea level rise are not new phenomena, but what worries them is the rate at which we are seeing these changes happen now. Archaeologists are already seeing sites with cultural material eroding from them due to sea level rise. We have seen sites, even those inland, destroyed due to stronger and more frequent storm events. We recognize that we cannot save them all, but we can do our best to document them and save those that are significant both from an archaeological standpoint, but also from a Native American cultural standpoint. 

Heritage Monitoring Scout workshop in East Point, FL,
volunteers learning to monitor archaeological
sites.

Archaeologists, including those from tribal governments, are working around the state to document and find solutions to protect our state’s most vulnerable sites. Living shorelines are being installed in some instances, 3D models are being constructed, GIS data is being compiled, and sites are being monitored statewide. These efforts are not just taking place in Florida, but around the country and globally. In some instances, such as with FPAN’s Heritage Monitoring Scouts program, volunteers are being utilized to help with the workload. 50 million indeginous people died from disease, massacres, and slavery as a result of European contact. Many oral histories, traditions, knowledge, and language disappeared along with them, and so it is even more important that we work to learn from and preserve as much as we can from these sites because in many instances they are all that is left of past cultures. Many archaeologists believe strongly that this is the least we can do for the descendants of these ancient indeginous people. Scientific data shows that climate change disproportionately affects minority and indeginous communities, and their cultural heritage is also at risk due to climate change.