What was the impetus for these catalyst grant projects? 

The impetus for the first project was an extreme rainfall event that occurred in north-central Wisconsin. A series of thunderstorms moved across that region bringing eight to ten inches of rain over a 24-hour period, and the result was extremely heavy stormwater runoff and flash flooding that caused considerable damage to the Bad River Band Tribe's infrastructure. The Tribal Nations of the Great Lakes, particularly those in Michigan, became concerned about the potential impacts for their lands if such an event were to occur, and wanted to learn more about potential tools and adaptive measures that they might employ to protect against such damage. 

Robin Clark at the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan (ITCMI) reached out to the my co-investigator Maria Carmen Lemos (Professor, Environment and Sustainability) about the possibility of the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments (GLISA) center organizing  a multi-day workshop to discuss these issues. The workshop, held during the autumn of 2017, had two purposes. First, it provided an opportunity for the Tribal Nations to come together and share stories of environmental/climate-based research and adaptation efforts which had been undertaken following an initial climate vulnerability assessment led by the ITCMI. Secondly, to address Tribal concerns about the potential impacts of increasing extreme rainfall, my GLISA colleague Omar Gates and I shared data on historical extreme rainfall events across the Great Lakes region, near-term and long-term rainfall projections, and an example of how the U.S. EPA’s national stormwater calculator could be applied [to Tribal lands]. 

As a result of the Tribes' positive response, we submitted a second proposal to Graham to perform baseline stormwater runoff assessments in collaboration with four ITCMI member-Tribes for areas of their lands which they deemed most vulnerable to stormwater impacts.

What was something you found unexpected or surprising about the work across these projects? 

I think people have a lot of misconceptions about working with Tribal Nations. First of all, they are nations. You don't just pick up the phone, call them, and say “we want to work with you.” There are certain protocols to follow, and people often do not respect their sovereignty. That's one thing that I learned right away.

Secondly, certain things are very important when working with Tribal Nations that you might not necessarily think about when you're working on a traditional project. For example, one of the core tenets of working collaboratively with Tribal Nations is to conduct your work in a way that will  “cause no harm.” These Tribes have been on their lands for hundreds, even thousands of years. Certain areas and traditions are very sacred to them, thus they may not be interested in sharing specific information about them because they want to protect those traditions and protect those sacred places, and perhaps sharing information with people from outside of the Tribe could cause harm.  As a result, as a researcher, when you enter into these types of relationships, you have to accept that there may be a point at which the Tribal Nations don't feel comfortable sharing information. You have to understand that information is not a right, but a gift to be given.  One of the first things the research team did was to provide gifts to the Tribe, because any information they provided to us was a gift in a sense, and it would be rude not to give them a gift as well. 

What are the outcomes of these projects that you are most proud of? 

From the first project, one thing I was most proud of was the fact that we were invited onto the lands of the Bay Mills Indian Community, where we co-facilitated the workshop. We were able to provide an opportunity for communication among the Tribal Nations themselves, including some Tribes that had not been involved in this type of collaborative work previously.

I would also point to gaining an understanding of the importance of relationship-building and of recognizing the sovereignty of the Tribes. One thing I've come to appreciate, approaching projects from both a technical and social discipline, is that if you don't meet the needs of the people you're creating a solution for, then it's like you didn't do it at all.

Having learned  more about the experiences that these Tribes have had working with universities and governments in the past, it’s not surprising their hesitation to continue to do so. That is why we had to approach working with them not as a quick thing to jump into, but a process of building relationships. 

As for the stormwater modeling project, a student from one of the Tribal Nations (Keweenaw Bay Indian Community)  worked with me and performed the stormwater runoff assessment for her Tribal Nation, and she was then able to take that information back to her community and shared the results with them. In the process, she was able to pick up a new skill set, too. That was a neat part of the project for me.

What are the next steps for this work?

We provided the Tribal communities with some first steps in making stormwater assessments, but more detailed stormwater modeling is needed. The model that we provided basically says that if a certain amount of precipitation that falls in an area, some of that water will percolate down into the soil, some of it will evaporate, some might run out of the area, and some will perhaps run into the stormwater system. But the model doesn't say, “Okay, now what happens to that system?” as a result.

There are more tools from the US EPA that will allow them to evaluate if they have the infrastructure to handle a certain large amount of stormwater. Right now, we are in the process of putting together an interactive virtual workshop to demonstrate these tools and discuss how they might be able to utilize them.