A People's Oral History of Coal

FAIN: PN-295876-24

Montana State University (Bozeman, MT 59717-2470)
Kerri Clement (Project Director: May 2023 to present)

The collection and curation of 25 oral histories from Apsáalooke elders and tribal members who hold knowledge about the development and governance of a coal economy on the Crow Indian Reservation.

Like many Indigenous nations and communities, the Apsáalooke (Crow) in Montana face two-pronged threats in the form of climate change and COVID-19. In collaboration with community leaders and elders, this project will preserve that knowledge by collecting oral histories from Crow elders. This project will conduct over twenty interviews with elders on the reservation over the course of two years, which will be preserved and hosted at the tribal college—the Little Big Horn College—archives. Climate change is causing chronic and acute shocks to the Crow Reservation, including flooding, water access issues, and extreme weather. These effects fall on vulnerable communities that are ill-prepared to respond due to historic inequalities. COVID-19 directly threatens tribal elders and their role in the community as knowledge-keepers because of disproportionate morbidity and mortality that has radically accelerated the erosion of vital knowledge held by community elders.