Native American Tribes and dam removal: restoring the Ottaway, Penobscot, and Elwha rivers

Keywords: Native American Tribes, dam removal, Indigeneity, environmental justice
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 74

Abstract

Since the early 1900s, more than 1700 dams have been removed from rivers in the United States. Native American Tribes have played a key role in a number of significant removals, bringing cultural, economic, and legal resources to bear on the process. Their involvement stands in contrast to the displacement and marginalization that have historically characterized the relationship between Native Americans and the dams built by settler-colonial governments on their rivers. Our research investigates Tribal involvement in dam removals, with examples from the Ottaway, Penobscot, and Elwha rivers. We ask the following: What roles have Tribes played in successful removals? How does dam removal affect and reflect shifting power relations between Tribal governments and non-Tribal actors? How might dam removal function as restorative environmental justice for Tribes? Our research finds that Tribal involvement provides opportunities for inserting underacknowledged values and resource claims into dam removal efforts, while facilitating new collaborations and alliances. We also find evidence of Tribes affecting the nature and practice of river restoration through dam removal. We conclude that Tribal involvement in dam removal is contributing to important shifts in environmental politics in the US.