Witnessing Environmental Changes

Haskell Indian Nations University

This video segment examines the issue of climate change from the perspective of Native Americans. The video segment was adapted from a student video produced at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas.

Click to View

Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

Students could locate the setting of this video and investigate, using other resources such as drought maps and satellite images, changes in the area over the time span that these elders describe.
Paiute elders describe the changes they have observed in their surroundings, especially those related to water, and the effects of these changes on their way of life. Comments from expert scientist: Scientific strengths: - Background essay gives current statistics about the indigenous population in the world and in the United States - Elders explain the differences they have observed in fish, rain and heat over the years - This resource doesn't include a whole lot of hardy scientific material (facts, data, etc.) but would be a good introduction to climate change affects; the stats of fish decline, rain decline and temperature changes.
Video portrays the reflections of two Walker River (Nevada) Paiute Elders who describe the river and surrounding mountains as they were in their childhood and how much they have changed since then, primarily in terms of availability of water and food. Background essay about indigenous knowledge and discussion questions provided.