Strategic Forest Reserves can protect biodiversity in the western United States and mitigate climate change

Forest preservation is crucial for protecting biodiversity and mitigating climate change. Here we assess current forest preservation in the western United States using spatial data and find that beyond the 18.9% (17.5 Mha) currently protected, an additional 11.1% (10.3 Mha) is needed to achieve 30% preservation by 2030 (30 × 30). To help meet this regional preservation target, we developed a framework that prioritizes forestlands for preservation using spatial metrics of biodiversity and/or carbon within each ecoregion. We show that meeting this preservation target would lead to greater protection of animal and tree species habitat, current carbon stocks, future carbon accumulation, and forests that are important for surface drinking water. The highest priority forestlands are primarily owned by the federal government, though substantial areas are also owned by private entities and state and tribal governments. Establishing Strategic Forest Reserves would help protect biodiversity and carbon for climate adaptation and mitigation.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Indigenous Representation in Public Health Data

Public Health 3.0 calls for the inclusion of new partners and novel data to bring systemic change to the US public health landscape. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has illuminated significant data gaps influenced by ongoing colonial legacies of racism and erasure. American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations and communities have been disproportionately affected by incomplete public health data and by the COVID-19 pandemic itself. Our findings indicate that only 26 US states were able to calculate COVID-19‒related death rates for AI/AN populations. Given that 37 states have Indian Health Service locations, we argue that public health researchers and practitioners should have a far larger data set of aggregated public health information on AI/AN populations. Despite enormous obstacles, local Tribal facilities have created effective community responses to COVID-19 testing, tracking, and vaccine administration. Their knowledge can lead the way to a healthier nation. Federal and state governments and health agencies must learn to responsibly support Tribal efforts, collect data from AI/AN persons in partnership with Indian Health Service and Tribal governments, and communicate effectively with Tribal authorities to ensure Indigenous data sovereignty. (Am J Public Health. 2021;111(S3): S208–S214. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306415 )

Utility of Occupancy Models with Environmental DNA (eDNA) from Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary

Adjacent to the spectacular, rugged coastline bordering the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS) encompasses 8257 km 2 of coastal waters that support one of North America’s most productive marine ecosystems. These rich waters support important recreational, commercial and subsistence fisheries for Washington state and four sovereign tribal governments: the Quinault Indian Nation and the Makah, Quileute and Hoh Tribes. Given its ecological, cultural and economic significance, managers from OCNMS are tasked with monitoring and management towards conserving the area's ecological integrity. The development of metabarcoding with environmental DNA (eDNA) as an effective freshwater monitoring tool has potential applications in marine systems, but the statistical analysis and the interpretation of those eDNA results are still under development. One promising strategy to analyze eDNA is through the use of occupancy models. Occupancy models enable us to calculate probabilities of detection from each taxon sequenced and are designed to work with presence-absence data. To inform our long term monitoring design of this coastal ecosystem, we collected 44 eDNA samples at nine of OCNMS’ long term mooring sites in 2019 and tested four different molecular markers for species reported and taxonomic richness. Additionally, we assessed occupancy models for use with eDNA to estimate the number of samples required to accurately predict the presence of a species. Occupancy models show great promise for use in eDNA studies provided there is sufficient replication; additionally, the choice of molecular marker strongly influences a taxa’s probability of detection.

Secured Transactions Laws and Economic Development on American Indian Reservations

Harmonized commercial laws are considered an essential ingredient to commerce and trade and have been called the backbone of American commerce. Key components of these laws are those governing secured transactions. In recent years, Native American tribal governments have moved to adopt commercial codes to increase economic development on their reservations, but many have modified these codes to address challenges to tribal sovereignty and culture. This paper compares reservations that adopted modified secured transaction acts to reservations that adopted uniform laws. We demonstrate that reservations can potentially experience substantial economic gains from either form of adoption.

“The Jesuit mission proves we were here”: The Case of Eighteenth-Century Jesuit Missions Aiding Twenty-First Century Tribal Recognition

Records indicate that during the French colonial period, Jesuits established four mission congregations within the territory now known as Vermont. These missions were established to preach to both French colonists and Native converts on Isle La Motte, on the Missisquoi River in Swanton, at Fort Saint-Frédéric on Lake Champlain, and in the area known as the Koas on the Connecticut River. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the Abenaki peoples of Vermont have had a long and difficult road to gain state and federal recognition. These descendant communities have invoked the existence of Jesuit missions to the Abenaki as proof of the current tribal governments’ legitimacy. This is intriguing considering the blame for cultural destruction is often laid at the feet of Jesuit missionaries. This paper examines the relationship between historical and archaeological evidence of French Jesuits and the legal legitimization of the Abenaki of Vermont.

Commercial Tobacco Retailing in Tribal Jurisdictions: A Field Study

Objectives: Our objective was to provide data contrasting commercial tobacco retailing in Tribal versus non-Tribal jurisdictions, in 3 states. These data may be relevant for US Food and Drug Administration regulation of Tribal retailing. Methods: With Tribal permission, observations were made on commercial tobacco advertising, product variety, pricing, and retail concept for stores within and just outside Tribal jurisdictions in areas of Arizona (AZ), California (CA), and Oklahoma (OK). Results: A total of 87 Tribal (20 AZ, 53 CA, 14 OK) and 67 (10, 43, 14) non-Tribal retailer visits were completed. There was substantial variation across tribes, with sales in AZ and most CA Tribal jurisdictions handled at convenience stores, whereas OK Tribal retailing was done mostly in specialized tobacco-specialty shops. Electronic cigarettes were ubiquitous across Tribal and non-Tribal outlets. Advertising and breadth of cigarette offerings was most extensive in the tobacco specialty retailers of Tribal OK. Surprisingly, Tribally manufactured cigarettes were found only at some CA Tribal retailers. Conclusions: Some Tribal commercial tobacco outlets actually price above their non-Tribal competitors and there is substantial variation in retailing strategy across Tribal jurisdictions. Tribal governments can continue to evaluate and reform commercial tobacco retailing so as to improve Tribal health.

The chronic uncertainty of American Indian property rights

Property institutions should ideally provide economic actors with certainty that their local choices about investment will not be unsettled by shifting political economic equilibria. We argue that for this to occur, political autonomy, administrative and enforcement capacity, political constraints, and accessible legal institutions are each necessary. A comparison of the evolution of property rights for settlers and American Indians in the United States shows how political and legal forces shape the evolution of property institutions. American Indians, who had property institutions before Europeans arrived, could not defend their land from Europeans and later Americans due to lacking military capacity. Settlers' property rights were relatively secure because the government had sufficient autonomy and capacity to broadly define and enforce their rights, political institutions constrained the government from expropriating settlers' property, and legal institutions provided a forum for settlers to adjudicate and defend their rights in court. Native Americans, in contrast, had systematically inconsistent and often expropriative policy treatment by the government. Although tribes have technically been sovereign since the 1970s, tribal governments continue to lack sufficient political and legal autonomy and capacity to define and enforce property institutions in response to evolving local conditions.