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"This book offers a comparative analysis of the experiences, responses, and adaptations of people to climate variability and environmental change across the Americas. It foregrounds historical ecology as a structural framework for understanding the climate change crisis throughout the region and throughout time. In recent years Indigenous and local populations in particular have experienced climate change effects such as altered weather patterns, seasonal irregularities, flooding and drought, and difficulties relating to subsistence practices. Understanding and dealing with these challenges has drawn on peoples' longstanding experience with climate variability and in some cases includes models of mitigation and responses that are millennia old. With contributions from specialists across the Americas, the volume will be of interest to scholars from fields including anthropology, archaeology, geography, environmental studies, and Indigenous studies"--

This book offers a comparative analysis of the experiences, responses, and adaptations of people to climate variability and environmental change across the Americas. It foregrounds historical ecology as a structural framework for understanding the climate change crisis throughout the region and throughout time. In recent years, Indigenous and local populations in particular have experienced climate change effects such as altered weather patterns, seasonal irregularities, flooding and drought, and difficulties relating to subsistence practices. Understanding and dealing with these challenges has drawn on peoples' longstanding experience with climate variability and in some cases includes models of mitigation and responses that are millennia old. With contributions from specialists across the Americas, this volume will be of interest to scholars from fields including anthropology, archaeology, geography, environmental studies, and Indigenous studies.

AbstractDespite their unmistakable significance in regional histories and unique roles in cultural transmission and traditions, Indigenous trail systems are frequently ignored in non‐Indigenous heritage resource management regimes. These regulatory regimes often require that heritage have discrete spatial and temporal boundaries and predefined material attributes and functions. However, as landscape‐scale connectors of peoples, places, and times that blend spiritual, economic, and educational functions, trails challenge these proscriptions. Trails eschew cost‐effective identification, documentation, and conservation. Accordingly, and because trails cannot be adequately documented without the expertise of people whose lands and communities they serve, archaeologists tasked with identifying heritage in advance of resource extraction and land alteration projects often omit trails from assessments. Shortcomings in heritage conservation regimes in British Columbia and elsewhere are resulting in the obliteration of Indigenous trails at precisely the time they are needed to support the revitalization of Territory‐Community relationships at the core of Indigeneity. We address this tragedy by integrating archaeology, ethnography, remote sensing, and collaborative fieldwork to document trails in Wet'suwet'en and Gitxsan Territories. This enables protection in heritage management contexts and renewed and expanded trail use in intergenerational and intercultural contexts in support of Indigenous community futurity, survivance, and shared senses of community, geography, and stewardship.

ABSTRACTFor many Indigenous peoples, their traditional lands are archives of their histories, from the deepest of time to recent memories and actions. These histories are written in the landscapes' geological features, contemporary plant and animal communities, and associated archaeological and paleoecological records. Some of these landscapes, recently termed "cultural keystone places" (CKPs), are iconic for these groups and have become symbols of the connections between the past and the future, and between people and place. Using an historical‐ecological approach, we describe our novel methods and initial results for documenting the history of three cultural keystone places in coastal British Columbia, Canada: Hauyat, Laxgalts'ap (Old Town) and Dałk Gyilakyaw (Robin Town) (territories of Heiltsuk, Gitga'ata, and Gitsm'geelm, respectively). We combine data and knowledge from diverse disciplines and communities to tell the deep and recent histories of these cultural landscapes. Each of CKPs encompasses expansive landscapes of diverse habitats transformed by generations of people interacting with their surrounding environments. Documenting the "softer" footprints of past human‐environmental interactions can be elusive and requires diverse approaches and novel techniques.

The knowledge systems and practices of Indigenous Peoples and local communities play critical roles in safeguarding the biological and cultural diversity of our planet. Globalization, government policies, capitalism, colonialism, and other rapid social-ecological changes threaten the relationships between Indigenous Peoples and local communities and their environments, thereby challenging the continuity and dynamism of Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK). In this article, we contribute to the "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity," issued by the Alliance of World Scientists, by exploring opportunities for sustaining ILK systems on behalf of the future stewardship of our planet. Our warning raises the alarm about the pervasive and ubiquitous erosion of knowledge and practice and the social and ecological consequences of this erosion. While ILK systems can be adaptable and resilient, the foundations of these knowledge systems are compromised by ongoing suppression, misrepresentation, appropriation, assimilation, disconnection, and destruction of biocultural heritage. Three case studies illustrate these processes and how protecting ILK is central to biocultural conservation. We conclude with 15 recommendations that call for the recognition and support of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and their knowledge systems. Enacting these recommendations will entail a transformative and sustained shift in how ILK systems, their knowledge holders, and their multiple expressions in lands and waters are recognized, affirmed, and valued. We appeal for urgent action to support the efforts of Indigenous Peoples and local communities around the world to maintain their knowledge systems, languages, stewardship rights, ties to lands and waters, and the biocultural integrity of their territories—on which we all depend. ; Peer reviewed