CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Kimmel, Mara Ellen |
|---|---|
| Title | Fate Control and Human Rights: Land, Governance and Wellbeing in America's Arctic |
| Summary | Alaska Native tribes lack territorial authority over lands transferred under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The loss of territoriality means that indigenous governments face unique obstacles to self-governance that do not affect other local governments in Alaska or indigenous tribes in the continental United States. This dissertation relies on archival and legal research to analyze how these obstacles developed. Using legal and interpretative policy analysis, this research reveals four specific impacts that occur when local governments lose the authority to govern the lands and resources upon which their communities depend. First, governments lose the capacity to govern for their community’s food security. Second, Alaska tribes cannot seek to regulate environmental quality. Third, Alaska tribal governments are unable to create policies that promote resilience to climate change. Finally, the capacity for tribal governments to protect public safety is restricted because of the lack of territorial authority. These losses create obstacles to the capacity of tribal communities to govern for the wellbeing of their community that are compounded by complex systems of state and federal governance. These obstacles hinder the ability of Alaska Native tribes to exercise the right of self- determination and the capacity to promulgate policies that promote fate control and other Arctic human development goals. This dissertation uses qualitative research methods to examine the two-fold response to the loss of territoriality. First, using participant observation and key-informant interviews, this dissertation presents a case study of how one tribal organization is working to build systems that “hold people up instead of holding them back” through promoting shared governance and co- management of water quality and climate change science. The Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC) is an international, inter-tribal consortium of Alaska Tribes and Canadian First Nations that seeks to support its member tribes in asserting the sovereign right to co-govern the water quality of the Yukon River basin. Second, using archival research and observation, this dissertation assesses the responses of the state and federal governments to the efforts of Alaska tribes to increase self-governance, including legislative approaches to expand territorial and non-territorial tribal authority. This dissertation concludes that the loss of territoriality impedes the ability of tribes to exercise the human right of self-determination, and that states and federal governments have a commensurate obligation to recognize those rights This dissertation also concludes that the loss of land based governance impacts on the capacity of local tribal governments to promulgate policies that promote human development and wellbeing. To remedy the impacts to human rights and human development, this dissertation suggests integrating adaptive co-management regimes that structurally share power and authority with Alaska tribes. |
| Supervisor | Antypas, Alexios |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/kimmel_mara.pdf |
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