Community Elder Interviews

Semi-structured interviews with Community Elders regarding: 1) The environmental and social changes they have already observed in their lifetimes and their hopes and fears for the future in the context of incoming industrial development and the potential for more environmental and social changes to come (both positive and negative). 2) Whether or not they felt that their community was currently in the best position possible to both take advantage of the opportunities as well as face the challenges that such change could represent and whether they had any suggestions for improvements in terms of local decision-making processes, etc. 3) About the knowledge and practices they felt were most needed to be documented and communicated to outside decision-makers. Participants were also asked to identify some of the cultural values and traditional practices that they felt were critically important to pass on to the youth within their own Tribe. 4) Overall, what they felt was the most important thing that their community could do to embrace the changes to come while still maintaining the core values of their culture. Emphasis in these interviews were put on their perspectives as knowledgeable and respected elders, especially when it came to offering their critiques and suggestions about present conditions and future courses of action for their community. The structure of the interviews was relatively loose to allow the elders to freely share their recollections from the past and to generally speak about whatever they most preferred to discuss.