Project Statement

In collaboration with the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, EPA, and FEMA, the Fort Peck Tribes Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) adopts a culturally responsive approach to hazard mitigation planning that features connection to place. In a departure from the norm, landscape architects took the lead on this project, pioneering a unique approach that weaves together technical and design expertise with cultural insights, creating an HMP that reflects both the community's unique identity and its practical needs. Central to the mitigation measures is the recognition cultural assets play in the resilience of the community, such as their sacred connections to water and landscape, culturally significant medicinal plants, and even their bison herd.

Project Narrative

This project highlights a unique and pioneering approach to Hazard Mitigation Plans (HMPs), demonstrating how design and cultural values can substantially strengthen a typically technocratic approach to hazard mitigation. The purpose of a Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) is to identify risks and vulnerabilities associated with natural hazards and to develop both short-term and long-term strategies, as well as mitigation projects, that make a community more resilient to hazards. Hazard Mitigation Plans are essential documents for a community and are required by FEMA for communities seeking disaster mitigation and recovery funding.

In partnership with the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, EPA, and FEMA, this pilot planning study updates the Tribes' previous HMP, which is required every five years. Breaking from standard practice, landscape architects were selected to lead this HMP, and were tasked with developing a process that integrated the community’s traditional knowledge, cultural values, and intimate connection to the landscape—along with the standard technical analysis—into a more holistic approach to an HMP.

Working with the planning team and federal partners, the Fort Peck Tribes spent a year re-examining the hazards in their community, identifying the assets they wanted to protect—both cultural and technical—and developing plans and strategies to mitigate the impact of hazards to the community. Using the latest climate projections for the region, the planning team provided a framework for the community to evaluate the future climate challenges as they developed their priorities for hazard mitigation.

The community engagement process explored the role of cultural assets and traditional knowledge within the community, and significantly, explored the community’s understanding of natural hazards themselves. Their traditional understanding of hazards as both a destructive and life-affirming force was acknowledged in the plan and used to evaluate proposed mitigation efforts. The plan acknowledged that while floods are destructive to property, they are also life-giving to the Tribes’ sacred cottonwood groves, as an example; and recognized the bison herd as a resilience asset and a key part of the Tribes’ food sovereignty capacity.

The planning team mapped out future climate projections derived from global climate models for the period from 2015 to 2100. A capabilities assessment was included in the HMP that identifies existing frameworks, personnel and resources within the Fort Peck Tribal community that will support the successful implementation of the HMP goals and resilience projects. The HMP was intentionally developed to support ongoing efforts and programs with mitigation strategies and goals that will strengthen the Tribes’ efforts to procure funding and catalyze project implementation and impact for the community.

These projects aim to mitigate hazard impacts, provide shelter and support for the Fort Peck Tribes during a disaster, and provide a place for residents to recover and access aid and information after a severe hazard event. They are also designed to have a positive economic, environmental, and cultural impact year-round by doubling as ecotourism opportunities. This project demonstrates the power of including social and cultural strategies in Hazard Mitigation Plans and how landscape architects are uniquely positioned to work with communities to create resilience plans that are holistic and responsive.