As climate change transforms Alaska, an academic calls for archaeology to become a “political ally” to Indigenous communities amid debate over US energy policy.
The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the global average since 1979. Yet its rapid transformation is not a matter for the natural sciences alone. The associated challenges directly affect people living across the North, especially Indigenous communities whose livelihoods and cultures are closely connected to their surrounding environment and its resources. Many also face social and economic disadvantages that can make adapting to environmental change more difficult.
This raises questions about cultural heritage, inequality and environmental justice. A recently published Perspective in a Nature Portfolio journal proposes archaeology as one small but potentially meaningful part of the response. Its author, archaeologist Dr Charlotta Hillerdal, brings together the effects of Arctic climate change, Indigenous knowledge and heritage, and contemporary US politics.
Knowledge, heritage and resilience
The value of Indigenous knowledge in responding to environmental change is increasingly recognised in research. A growing body of literature argues that knowledge developed through generations of living in particular environments can complement conventional science with detailed local experience and observations. Researchers also emphasise a broader dimension, including cultural values, relationships with the environment and different ways of understanding how people interact with a changing world.
The Perspective connects archaeology with both this knowledge and present-day challenges. Archaeological evidence can provide a long-term view of how previous generations responded to environmental change. Connections with the past can also reinforce traditional values, cultural practices and ties between generations. These, the author argues, can contribute to social resilience by supporting cultural continuity and giving communities another source of strength as they confront new environmental pressures.
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Beyond preserving the past
The argument becomes considerably more political when it turns to current US policy. The Perspective points to President Donald Trump’s push to expand fossil fuel extraction in Alaska and reverse environmental protections, arguing that this direction is particularly troubling at a time of rapid Arctic warming. In the author’s interpretation, such developments further contribute to a climate crisis that already disproportionately affects Alaska Native communities, reinforcing existing inequalities.
This leads to a more forceful argument about the role of archaeology itself. Rather than limiting archaeology to recovering and preserving material traces of the past, community-based archaeology is presented by the author as a form of “narrative resistance” that can reinforce Indigenous continuity and amplify local voices. Archaeologists are called on by Hillerdal to “join the cry for action” on climate change, align the discipline with disempowered groups and become “political allies” in the pursuit of environmental justice.
Polar Journal AG Team