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Energy development impacts on Indigenous peoples

The energy development impacts on Indigenous peoples results from the different energy technologies, policies, and the effects of energy sourcing and development.  Areas of concern to Indigenous peoples include the influx of non-Indigenous peoples, environmental law violations, the generation and storage of contaminated waste created by operations and impacts on the health and wellbeing of the local community.

Map of Native American reservations in the Continental United States.

Indigenous tribes in the western United States own a considerable portion of the nation's uranium, strippable coal, oil shale, geothermal, natural gas and petroleum reserves.

Energy development is the field of activities and operations focused on obtaining forms of energy from our natural resources. Energy is used in all aspects of our society and supports the growth of our economy, transportation, trade, agriculture, and industries.

Types of Energy

Energy resources can be classified by their renewability, either renewable or non-renewable.  They are also classified as primary or secondary resources.  Primary resources do not have to be converted into another form for end use while secondary sources do.

• Fossil fuels
  • Coal
  • Petroleum
  • Natural gas
• Nuclear
• Renewable
  • Hydroelectric
  • Wind
  • Solar
  • Biofuels
  • Geothermal
  • Oceanic

Impacts on Environment

Each of the different energy technologies varies in their impact on Indigenous land.  This includes Native American reservations and unceded land.

Water

Impacts on the water that Indigenous peoples rely upon is obvious.  Indigenous peoples have always fought for their water rights.  In the mid-1900’s, most of the streams and rivers in the west were fully allocated and dammed.  They were diverted and used for farming irrigation, as well as energy, mining, and urban development, by non-Indigenous peoples. .   Indigenous peoples utilize traditional food sources, which include water-based species.  Damming directly effects these species through well documented environmental impacts, their accessibility and numbers decline which puts Indigenous peoples at a risk for food security and nutrition status. Dams are used to store water, prevent floods, and provide a source of renewable energy. They also destroy carbon sinks in wetlands and oceans, prevent the exchange of nutrients in ecosystems, destroy habitats and displace poor communities.

History of mining on Native reservations has left a legacy of toxic mining waste exposure among Indigenous populations. This is due to the lack of environmental protections in the 1872 mining law, which means that not only is direct contamination occurring on Indigenous land but through continued draining of contaminated mine water into surrounding watersheds.

Air

Many reservations have coal reserves, coal mines and coal plants.  Electricity generation is a large contributor to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution. Coal plants found on the Navajo Nation and Crow tribal lands release a large number of toxins and pollutants when burned, including lead, mercury, sulfur dioxide, particulates, and nitrogen oxides. Wind energy is a renewable source that be used to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels.  It also can impact habitat by fragmentation for species and the spinning blades also pose a severe risk to birds and bats.

Land

Mining poses a severe risk to Indigenous land quality and vastness of the problem is unknown due to the unmarked mining sites and inadequate mine records.  Indigenous lands in the western states have been mined for gold, lead, silver, uranium, molybdenum, copper, and vanadium. There are currently more than 160,000 abandoned hard rock mines and it is estimated that more than 600,000 Native Americans live within 10 km of an abandoned mining site.

The transportation of acquired resources also poses a threat to Indigenous lands by way of pipelines. If a leak does occur once the pipe is built, residents will be at risk of toxic exposure. In every instance of a tar sand leak in populated areas, toxic chemical exposure through respiration has occurred. Indigenous peoples have fought against development of pipelines for various reasons, one of the biggest events in the past years was the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline by the Oceti Sakowin.

Dakota access oil pipeline construction

Impacts on health of Indigenous peoples

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61252-5

Each source of energy provides its own health risks. The biggest health impacts accrue to the harvesting and burning of solid fuels, coal and biomass, mainly in the form of occupational health risks and household and general ambient air pollution.

Not only does mining pose risks to its workers such as explosions, gas inhalation, cave-ins, machinery accidents, floods, and mine-shaft falls but it also effects those in the surrounding areas. Particulate matter—both coarser PM10 and finer PM2.5—are epidemiologically associated with both acute and chronic mortality in urban areas, as well as with increases in hospitalizations and respiratory symptoms and decreases in lung function. Communities near refineries are often also exposed to a range of air toxics

Uranium mining poses a unique risk due to radon gas exposure, which shows an elevated rate of lung cancer in these workers. Contaminated waste has effected the local communities in Navajo Nation, where in a community in northeastern Arizona uranium levels in spring water were found to be five times higher than safe drinking water standards. Navajo neuropathy and other conditions have been linked to uranium contamination.

Impacts on Economy

Energy development is integral to tribal efforts to generate jobs and to improve tribal members’ standard of living. For many tribes, energy development is the primary revenue generator to fund education, infrastructure, and other public services on tribal land. Reservations contain almost 30 percent of the nation’s coal reserves west of the Mississippi, 50 percent of potential uranium reserves, and 20 percent of known oil and gas reserves. There is a long history of distrust between the energy industry, federal government and tribal nations due to a complex relationship and colonialism.

Impacts on culture and community wellbeing

Many tribal nations consider the environment and natural world as sacred. It is considered an integral part of their culture and livelihood. Often times energy development is opposed due to its negative effects on the environment, as seen in Hawaii. Geothermal development on Hawaii's volcanic areas is opposed by Native Hawaiians because it threatens a sacred space. Another example would be the illegal occupation of the Black Hills by the United States. They offered the Sioux nation $102 million USD as compensation for their loss but it was never collected and still sits in reserve. Through these instances, it can be seen that the western view of the environment and tribal views differ because it is about more than money for tribal nations.

Land is important for a variety of reasons:

1. it provides subsistence for people
2. it is the source of spiritual origins and creation for tribal people
3. it continues to be a spiritual landscape
4. it is a sacred place upon which generations and generations of tribal people have lived and practiced their ceremonies
5. it is irreplaceable and tribal people are unlikely to relocate from their ancestral lands.

Community well being is also adversely affected by the influx of non-native individuals to tribal lands. "Man-camps" are created by the energy industry to house workers, who are primarily men. In 2016, the National Congress of American Indians (“NCAI”) passed Resolution #PHX16-078 that stated, “there is a particular concern about the relationship between the extractive industries and sex trafficking.”