Using sedimentary records and Traditional Ecological Knowledge to understand climate change impacts in southeastern Kentucky (RPA Pilot/ Seed Project)

Climate change impacts in the Appalachian region appear to be increasingly difficult to plan for, with inequitable outcomes for landowners. Geoscientists study flood history and evaluate geological risks based on the physical evidence preserved in lakes and floodplains. However, this approach does not value the environmental history contained in Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). This project seeks to include TEK meaningfully and respectfully with geoscience research to develop a more sustainable analysis of the Cumberland River corridor in southeastern Kentucky and the history of human interactions with the waterscape. Oral history records at the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky will be carefully cataloged. If Institutional Review Board approval is granted through an exemption, unstructured oral history interviews will be organized with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) to learn more about their environmental knowledge of past adaptation to flooding in the region. We will analyze Renox archeological sediments in Cumberland County, KY to capture the environmental history prior to colonial settlement. A sediment core will be collected from Stinking Creek, Knox County, KY to examine the flood history primarily following colonial settlement. This sediment core will be deposited with the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) following project completion. The findings from this study will be extensively presented to local communities and the EBCI, and a peer-reviewed journal article in a respected journal will be written. This study will help guide the development of a decolonization protocol for KGS archives, the first of its kind for state geological materials. This data will be used to develop a larger proposal for the NSF Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Economic Systems and the National Fish Passage Program funding calls.