Why the Chesapeake Bay Needs Indigenous Knowledge

Today the Chesapeake Bay Program Management Board met to evaluate the need for new approaches for the one of the world's largest estuaries. The Indigenous Conservation Council, directed by its Board of Directors, is advocating for the revision of this Agreement to include signatory status, jurisdictional funding to support new Indigenous Guardians programs, a new tribal lands metric, and the incorporation Indigenous Knowledge as foundational to the way the Bay Program operates. Braiding Indigenous Knowledge with traditional "western science" and local knowledge comes at a time when studies are mounting on the value of Indigenous Knowledge to more effectively protect fisheries, wildlife, and community well-being in an era of rapid change, including the newest report released by the Institute of Tribal Environmental Professionals, Status of Tribes and Climate Change Report (Volume 2).

Caption: A workshop on March 22-23, 2025 hosted by the Chickahominy Indian Tribe-Eastern Division (CIT-ED) on its tribal lands brought tribal citizens, partners from the REED Center, and community members to learn about how to work with nature to support food sovereignty, habitat, and clean water. Photo credit: CIT-ED.

Why is this necessary?

Indigenous Knowledge represents world views and longitudinal datasets that encompass thousands of years of observation, management, and relationship with our natural world. Despite the presence of seven federally recognized tribes now implementing water, forest, and natural resource management programs, the formal incorporation of Indigenous Knowledge is completely absent in the Chesapeake Bay Program's decision-making framework. Other watershed initiatives such as the Puget Sound Partnership, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the Haida Gwaii (also known as the Great Bear Rainforest) have demonstrated the effectiveness in honoring the contributions of Sovereign Nations and Indigenous Knowledge within large-landscape scale restoration and conservation initiatives. These partnerships are accelerating the pace and quality of conservation, supporting the protection and access to cultural resources as critical to ecosystem restoration, and delivering cost-efficient results as a result of Indigenous Guardians, Indigenous Knowledge, or participatory science partnerships that enhance ecosystem and community well-being.

To date in the Haida Gwaii, this thoughtful approach to two-eyed seeing has resulted in the completion of 396 scientific research and habitat restoration initiatives to support 75 different species by more than 29 different Tribal Nations. This work is funded by Coast Funds--a blended financing model of philanthropic, private investment, and public sector funding. Return on investments compiled by economists identified a $10 return for every $1 invested in Indigenous Guardians programs.

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“Indigenous Guardians programs strengthen our communities. They create jobs, lower crime rates and improve public health. But most importantly, they inspire our young people. They connect them to the land and their elders. They give them professional training tied to their language and culture.”--

Valerie Courtois, Director, Indigenous Leadership Initiative

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How can Indigenous Knowledge improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the Chesapeake Bay Program?

Numerous examples exist of tribally-led and participatory research initiatives that deliver real outcomes for healthy lands, waters, and communities in partnership with federal, state, and academic institutions.

• Seeds of Success Program has collected and conserved 27,000 native seeds collected to date and created ecocultural restoration programs with the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation to restore public lands degraded by fire, soil degradation and invasive species to restore intact short grass prairies.

•  Coast Stewards Network in British Columbia: A coastal network of Indigenous Guardians in British Columbia is delivering cost savings in monitoring, enforcement, and compliance and enhancing restoration of key commercial species such as Dungeness crab by addressing displaced relatives such as the European Green Crab which threaten their habitat. This network now continuously monitors 26 fishery sites, has created early detection of disease and threats to ecosystem health, and has resulted in a net savings of roughly $200,000/year.

• Rivercane restoration in Kisatchie National Forest: Tribal Nations such as the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians are partnering with the US Forest Service to restore rivercane to local forest ecosystems through Indigenous Knowledge, a native species which has seen a 98% decline. River cane is an important nesting habitat for  songbirds and is also a culturally important species for flute and basket making. River cane has been shown to reduce groundwater nitrate pollutants by 99%, with similar results for sediment and other pollutants.

Indigenous Guardians Are Rising:

A new network of Indigenous Guardians is growing in the United States to bring Indigenous Knowledge and local perspectives to large-landscape scale conservation. The Indigenous Conservation Council's Board of Directors, an intertribal organization with representation by all of the seven federally recognized tribes located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, voted to support a formal partnership with the Resource Legacy Fund(RLF) at its February 2025 Board Meeting. RLF is supporting Knowledge transfer and lessons learned from the Indigenous Leadership Initiative to support Tribal Nations in the US interested in developing Indigenous Guardians programs of their own. Supporting Indigenous Guardians programs have been proven to attract private philanthropic support, foster new strategies to work with nature to support ecosystem resilience and adaptive management, and develop tribal capacity needed to accelerate conservation and restoration goals is critically needed for the Chesapeake Bay Program.