“In the last days of the fourth world I wished to make a map for those who would climb through the hole in the sky.”

That’s the first line of the poem “A Map to the Next World” by Muscogee writer and former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. It’s a piece that’s inspired Aquinnah Wampanoag writer Joseph Lee as he undertakes one of journalism's most nuanced beats: covering hundreds of unique tribal communities. 

Sometimes those stories fit into neat narratives – about how tribes are restoring nature and winning back land – but that’s not always the case. What's it like covering Indigenous communities responding and adapting to climate change? And how are these tribes thinking about their futures? We talk to Joseph Lee about some of the stories he’s covered, and his own attempt to make a map to the next world. 

Featuring Joseph Lee.

Produced by Felix Poon. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.

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LINKS

“A Map to the Next World,” is the title of a poem by Muscogee poet Joy Harjo.

Nothing More of This Land is a new book from award-winning journalist Joseph Lee, about Indigenous identity and the challenges facing Indigenous people around the world.

Read Joseph Lee’s reporting on:

• The Northwestern Shoshone’s restoration work to the Bear River (Vox)
• The controversy over a proposed gold mine in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta (Grist)
• The Shinnecock tribe’s response to sea-level rise in the Hamptons