‘Western science has overlooked’ indigenous knowledge, California climate strategy says
“Indigenous knowledge,” a pseudoscience that posits Native Americans possess an innate understanding of how the world works, is thriving in California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D.) administration has contended that “Western science” must embrace “the generations of knowledge held by Indigenous communities,” according to a Washington Free Beacon review of state documents.
Since Newsom entered office six years ago, the California state government has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars on programs promoting the idea, which the state also refers to as “traditional ecological knowledge,” and has leveraged it across several government functions, including wildfire mitigation, energy development, wildlife recovery, and land conservation, the documents show. The Newsom administration has made indigenous knowledge a central pillar of its climate agenda in particular.
The extensive taxpayer-funded indigenous knowledge efforts in California, which are detailed in an intricate web of state initiatives, reports, programs, and laws, highlight just how far a fringe academic theory has proliferated throughout Democratic Party-controlled governments. While scientists describe it as “dangerous” and a rejection of the scientific method, the Biden administration forced indigenous knowledge into agencies across the federal government, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the Department of Defense.
Newsom’s embrace of indigenous knowledge has been similarly enthusiastic.
“Western science has overlooked the generations of knowledge held by indigenous communities, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial,” states a draft copy of California’s 2024 climate adaptation strategy released last year. “Seeking and elevating Traditional Ecological Knowledge can augment conventional research methods to better understand how California’s climate and environment have changed over time.”
That strategy, the Newsom administration said, will be implemented over the next three years. According to the California Energy Commission, as part of that implementation, the state will develop its fifth climate change assessment, which will expand reliance on indigenous knowledge through its Tribal Research Program.
The Tribal Research Program establishes a new indigenous council to guide state climate policy, creates a report to summarize state-wide climate change impacts on tribes, and funds a grant-making initiative that provides $3.6 million for tribal-led climate change research that has an “indigenous knowledge focus.” The purpose of those grants is to help the state government tackle a variety of “climate” issues like wildfires.
Separately, in April 2024, the Newsom administration distributed $107.7 million for 33 tribal projects, ostensibly to help implement traditional ecological knowledge and tribal expertise, though Newsom also portrayed the funding as a form of reparations. “These awards are an acknowledgment of past sins, a promise of accountability, and a commitment to a better future—for the land and all its people, especially its original stewards,” Newsom said.
In the most recent example of the state’s reliance on indigenous knowledge, the California State Board of Food and Agriculture formally recommended that state officials incorporate so-called regenerative agriculture techniques into food-related policies and programs. Such techniques, according to the board, have been embraced by Native American tribes for generations and help mitigate climate change.
And Newsom has entered into multilateral agreements—one with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau in June 2022 and another months later with Washington, Oregon, and the province of British Columbia, Canada—that requires parties to “apply tribal and indigenous knowledge in managing natural systems” and broadly learn from the experience and expertise of tribes.
“In all our work, we acknowledge the important role of partnership with Indigenous Peoples, recognizing that Indigenous knowledge, including traditional knowledge, customary practices, and cultural values, is essential for climate action and nature protection,” the California-Canada agreement states.
Newsom’s pact with Canada is significant because the nation is an original adopter of indigenous knowledge programs. As the Free Beacon previously reported, Canada began incorporating the idea into its policymaking in the latter half of the 20th century, often with counterproductive results. A 2006 Canadian academic assessment concluded that “the acceptance of spiritual beliefs as ‘knowledge’ by governments was dangerous because it could be used to justify any activity, including actions that were environmentally destructive.”
Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
