Tribal Lands GIS Project

by Patricia Flores White, Development DirectorThe goal of the Tribal Lands GIS project is to create an engaging data-driven tool that cultivates buy-in supporting the work of Trees, Water & People’s Tribal program. The map series illustrates the inequity issues related to health, poverty and social vulnerability on Tribal lands. In particular, the data illustrates the disparity between urban hubs and rural communities.  We feel that these issues lie at the root causes of migration pressures, across the Americas, which are only growing in the face of climate change.This map series has the capacity to serve and inform stakeholders as well as empower Native American peoples in their decision making and planning.  Thanks to the collaboration with the CSU GeoCentroid Department we were able to develop these data visualization tools that illustrate the current day status of inequity in rural Tribal communities to potential change-makers. The series illustrated below was part of a map gallery display at the CSU Morgan Library for GIS Day, which brought together a consortium of experts in their fields spanning across a diversity of sectors. This project is an awesome example of how Geographic Information Systems help to cultivate a tangible understanding of large scale, complex issues.

“I wanted to work on this project because the problems that are happening on Native American reservations, such as environmental and social injustices, are becoming more and more relevant today.” - Riley Ross (GeoCentroid Intern)

Trees, Water & People has been working with climate-vulnerable populations in Central America and on U.S. Tribal Lands for over 20 years. Founded in Ft. Collins in 1998, TWP works in: Pine Ridge - South Dakota, White Earth - Minnesota, Santo Domingo Pueblo & Santa Fe Indian School - New Mexico.