Ryan Emanuel, associate professor at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, is known for his scholarship on water, environmental justice and Indigenous rights. He partners with tribal communities and frequently combines tools and ideas from both the academic tradition and Indigenous knowledge systems in his studies and teaching. I asked him to explain his work in the broad context of environmentalism and Indigenous rights.
What is ecohydrology and what exactly does an ecohydrologist do?
Ecohydrology is a branch of water science that focuses on interactions between water and ecosystems. Ecohydrologists study the active and ever-changing role of plants in the water cycle, impacts of water on plant diseases and pest outbreaks and interactions between water and microbes in the soil. In the broadest sense, ecohydrology studies interactions between water and life in land-based environments.
Did you always know that's what you wanted to do?
I became interested in environmental science during high school but I had no specific interests in hydrology until the head of the Charlotte US Geological Survey (USGA) field office showed up at my door to offer me a summer job. I sometimes say that I was proselytized into hydrology.
I started working for the USGA the Monday after I graduated high school and held a series of temporary appointments in Charlotte and Raleigh for the next few years. I learned to measure streamflow, collect water samples and maintain equipment. I helped collect data for Charlotte’s initial EPA stormwater permit application, draw new flood insurance maps and traveled across central North Carolina after major storms to measure floods on rivers and streams. It was a satisfying blend of working outdoors, in a laboratory and with large datasets.
My move into ecohydrology came during graduate school. Ecohydrology was an emerging research area and I liked the idea of thinking about water as part of a larger, holistic system that also involved plants, soils and the atmosphere.
You could have focused your scholarship and activism anywhere in the country. Why the Coastal Plains?
I experienced a lot of natural beauty and wilderness growing up and I wanted to protect those kinds of places. As I progressed in my career, I realized that my calling and where I need to focus my efforts was the place where I come from -- Robeson and Sampson County.
Those places don't necessarily look like national parks but they are sacred places filled with history and communities of people who care about each other and the place they live. They don't deserve to live in a dump. I am not saying that Robeson County is a dump but Robeson County gets dumped on. That realization emboldened me to apply my expertise in water to these kinds of problems, shine a spotlight on the way that we make assumptions about how this pollution is free of cost to people in the environment.
What have been some of the most rewarding projects or causes you've taken on?
I think about the work tribal nations have put into revitalizing their cultures and educating non-Natives. I am excited about the environmental justice work in North Carolina that pushes back against the narrative that Native American people were driven out of eastern North Carolina centuries ago, which has been the dominant narrative when it comes to environmental policies and permits.
There are also bright spots like the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would have plowed through large tribal populations and increased our addiction to fossil fuels.
You are currently writing a book – Water in the Lumbee World: Environmental Justice, Indigenous Rights, and the Transformation of Home. What led a scientific researcher to write what is essentially a history book?
My interests in environmental justice and Indigenous rights prompted me to slowly and cautiously expand into the humanities, including environmental history. We have to acknowledge the long history of colonialism and oppression. As a Lumbee person only one generation removed from the Jim Crow era, I grew up hearing my parents, grandparents and other elders talk about how their lives were affected by state-sanctioned racial segregation. We have to acknowledge and deal with these legacies if we want to fully address 21st century environmental issues like pollution, unsustainable development and climate change.
Did you learn anything new or surprising during your research and what do you want readers to take away from it?
I already knew that Lumbees and other Native Americans in eastern North Carolina had a long history as advocates for education but I found some interesting connections between education, cultural preservation and environmental protection in our tribal communities.
I want readers to better understand the extremely long history of Indigenous people and how colonialism continues to alter our relationships with the landscapes and waterways. The threats from fossil fuel pipelines, industrial livestock facilities and climate change all trace back in part to colonialism. As a Lumbee scholar, I want to unpack these ideas in ways that respect Indigenous knowledge systems and western academic traditions. I move between both of these worlds and want to bring readers along with me.
