Science on Tap: Aanji-bimaadiziimagak o’ow aki (the world is changing)

Rob Croll, Hannah Panci, and Melonee Montano of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission

Climate change is affecting beings (species) and ecosystems in the upper Midwest Ceded Territories, with which Ojibwe people have maintained relationships for centuries. As climate change continues, the ability of tribal members to exercise their off-reservation treaty rights to meet spiritual, ceremonial, medicinal, subsistence, and economic needs will be increasingly impacted. Aanji bimaadiziimagak o’ow aki, the second version of the GLIFWC Vulnerability Assessment, is an attempt to weave together Traditional and Scientific Ecological Knowledge to examine the climate change vulnerability of a set of culturally important beings in the upper Midwest Ceded Territories.

Rob Croll is a policy analyst in the Division of Intergovernmental Affairs at the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) where he coordinates the Climate Change Program. The GLIFWC Climate Change Program was created with the goal of integrating Scientific and Traditional Ecological Knowledges to provide a holistic and culturally appropriate approach to climate adaptation in the Ojibwe Ceded Territories in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. As Program Coordinator Rob oversees the activities of CCP staff, serves as liaison to tribal, state, federal, academic and NGO partners and works directly with counterparts at the eleven GLIFWC member tribes. Rob is a member of the Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu author team and the Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center Consortium Leadership Team. Rob is originally from Southeast Pennsylvania and now resides in the 1842 Ojibwe Ceded Territory.

Hannah Panci is a scientist in the Climate Change Program at the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC). Her primary projects include climate change adaptation planning for the Ceded Territories, work on the Tribal Adaptation Menu, a plant phenology project, and a seed collection project. She uses both Traditional and Scientific Ecological Knowledge to look at the impacts climate change will have on treaty resources on which GLIFWC’s 11 member tribes rely. She is originally from Eagle River, Wisconsin and now lives in Ironwood, Michigan where she moved to find lake effect snow.

Nisogaabokwe – Melonee Montano, is a mother, grandmother, and an enrolled member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Outreach Specialist for Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) where she helps assess climate change impacts on treaty resources and potential threats to Ojibwe culture and lifeways. She is also a Grad Student at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities in the Natural Resources Science & Management Program under the Forestry Department. Prior to GLIFWC she was Red Cliff’s Environmental Programs Manager where she has also served on various committees including EPA’s Regional Tribal Operations Committee, Alliance for Sustainability, Treaty Natural Resources, the Integrated Resources Management Plan, and is currently serving on the Great Lakes Compact Commission. She holds a B.S. degree in Healthcare Administration with a Native American and Environmental Studies emphasis. Lastly and most importantly, she is a lifelong student of her cultural ways.