Exploring Environmental Change Impacts Among an Indigenous Community

Background and Purpose: Indigenous peoples worldwide have poorer health compared to their majority groups. In the United States, mortality for indigenous peoples compared to non-indigenous peoples is four times greater due to alcohol-related diseases and two times greater due to both diabetes and accidents. Previous studies identify individual and societal-level stressors that influence health outcomes. Studies in Polar Regions show that disruption to indigenous peoples’ connection to land from environmental changes such as land loss, climate change, and biodiversity loss impact health. There is limited research within the United States on environmental change impacts to health, especially among indigenous peoples.

The purpose of this study was to develop relationships with tribal leaders in south Louisiana to reach consensus and gain permission on dissertation research as well as to refine data collection methods that are culturally appropriate with the tribe. This is just one step of many within the process of Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR).

Methods: Three pre-dissertation focus groups were conducted with tribal community members (n=13) on their experience of and exposure to environmental changes (4 male, 9 females). All participants had at least 21 years of age and all were enrolled members of an indigenous coastal community in south Louisiana. The focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Grounded theory principles guided systematic coding of all observational field notes and transcripts into themes using NVivo 9.0 software.

Findings: Participants described how they understood environmental changes like loss of land, anthropogenic disruption to natural processes, and biodiversity loss. Participants believe accelerated land loss is due to macro policies of dam and levee construction, allowance of oil exploration on land, inshore and offshore drilling, and the dredging of canals. Because community members were excluded from institutions like educational and judicial systems, they believe their land was taken from them.

Finally, participants discussed how they have traditionally been able to take care of themselves through “generous” people, land, and water.  Participants discussed how tribal communities were ‘close knit’ before the land loss forced out-migration. Participants expressed grief on their loss of these generous gifts and beliefs that without their traditional foods they, as a community, have more members with chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases.

Conclusion and Implications: This CBPR study engaged tribal leadership in designing a dissertation to understand health impacts of environmental changes. Focus group themes combined with theoretical frameworks in social work, public health, and geography guided the development of dissertation research design and methodology.

As global environmental change is a complex, ongoing, long-term systemic process that impacts all life on earth, this research can inform a culturally relevant collection of baseline data for social workers and public health practitioners to develop intervention and adaptation strategies.