Voluntary Community-Driven Relocation

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Branch of Tribal Climate Resilience (TCR) strives to fulfill the United States’ trust and treaty obligations to federally-recognized Tribal Nations and Alaska Native villages and commits to advancing Tribal sovereignty and self-determination. To this end, TCR provides financial, technical, and coordination assistance to Tribal communities in their community-led resilience initiatives and other community-driven relocation strategies through both the Voluntary Community-Driven Relocation Program and Annual Awards Program.

Voluntary Community-Driven Relocation Program

Voluntary community-driven relocation (CDR), also known as “community-led resilience” and “community-led relocation,” refers to a community’s planned move away from an area that climate change is rendering uninhabitable.

Other CDR strategies include partial relocation and protect-in-place. Partial relocation, also known as “site expansion” and “managed retreat,” refers to moving a portion of a community away from hazard-prone areas. Protect-in-place refers to a community’s plan to remain and implement risk-mitigation measures.

The Voluntary Community-Driven Relocation Program assists Tribal communities who are ready for plan implementation, as well as Tribal communities engaged in CDR planning.

Program Structure

The Voluntary Community-Driven Relocation Program is supported and implemented by the BIA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Denali Commission, and other partnering federal, state, and local agencies.

All projects are Tribally-led. At the direction of the Tribal communities, TCR assists with coordinating implementation and local support teams, provides financial and technical assistance to support Tribal strategies, and assists with coordination to match communities with federal financial and technical assistance. TCR regional coordinators support program award officials and serve as communities’ main points of federal contact.

CDR project coordinators are also provided with additional training, support, and resources. TCR partners with the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) Tribes and Climate Change Program to host virtual and in-person gatherings of CDR coordinators to assist with project planning and implementation.

Tribally-Led Demonstration Projects

As of 2022, Voluntary Community-Driven Relocation Program participants include three Tribal communities ready for implementation of community-led resilience plans and eight Tribal communities engaged in CDR planning.

The efforts undertaken by these 11 communities through the program will allow Tribal communities and their partners to develop standard guidelines for future Tribal climate resilience projects. For this reason, their initiatives are referred to as demonstration projects.

The Tribal communities ready for plan implementation:

Native Village of Napakiak, located on the Ninglick River in Alaska;
Newtok Village, located on the Kuskokwim River in Alaska; and
Quinault Indian Nation, located on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

The Tribal communities engaged in CDR planning include:

Huslia Village, located in Alaska’s Unorganized Borough;
Native Village of Fort Yukon, located at the confluence of the Yukon River and the Porcupine River in Alaska;
Native Village of Nelson Lagoon, located on the northern coast of the Alaska Peninsula;
Native Village of Point Lay, located above the Arctic Circle in northwest Alaska;
Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, located in the St. Mary Parish area of south-central Louisiana;
Havasupai Tribe, located in and around the Grand Canyon;
Passamaquoddy Indian Tribe in Pleasant Point, located in the Dawnland region of northeast Maine; and
Yurok Tribe, adjacent to the Redwood National Forest in Northern California.

Learn more about the Tribally-led demonstration projects by visiting the ArcGIS StoryMap “Tribal Climate Resilience: Community-Driven Relocation.” Created by TCR in collaboration with the Branch of Geospatial Support (BOGS), this StoryMap explores each Tribal community’s cultural and historical context, climate risks, resilience plans, and federal funding sources in an interactive and multimedia format.

Additional Funding Opportunities

Tribal communities interested in community-led resilience, site expansion, protect-in-place, and other climate resilience strategies may also apply for TCR’s Tribal Climate Resilience Annual Awards Program or explore the Tribal Climate Resilience Resource Directory for more funding opportunities.