Native American tribes reject Trump's stance on climate change and pledge to uphold the Paris Agreement

Four Native American nations have joined together to 'aggressively address climate change'

Standing Rock protesters in North Dakota in 2016 (Reuters)

A group of Native American tribes have said they will continue to uphold the Paris Climate Change Agreement despite Donald Trump's withdrawal from it earlier this year.

Four Native American nations across three US states have joined together to “aggressively address climate change” after the federal government announced it would withdraw from the agreement, signed in December 2015.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Quinault Indian Nation, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska said they would work together to protect the environment in their respective territories and to promote the cause in the rest of the US.

Since they announced the agreement last month, the Swinomish in Washington state have partnered with the Skagit Climate Consortium to protect the region’s salmon from pollution and warming waters, while the Tlingit and Haida tribes in Alaska are monitoring ocean acidification levels and harmful algae blooms, the High Country News reported.

Although Native American tribes’ own carbon footprints are relatively small, they are set to be some of the communities worst hit by climate change.

There are 567 federally recognised tribes in the US and 40 per cent of them live in Alaska, which is set to be one of the states most affected as the planet warms.

In August last year a small Alaskan coastal village on an island just north of the Bering Strait voted to evacuate rather than pay for costly environmental defences to cope with rising sea levels.

The village of Shishmaref, which has just under 600 residents, is blighted with poverty and may struggle to relocate to the mainland.

The residents also voted to leave in 2002 but were unable to do so due to cost.

One of the signatories to the agreement, the Standing Rock Sioux, has become famous for their long standing opposition to the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline, which would bring oil from North Dakota to Illinois.

The tribe argues that the 1,172 mile pipeline would cross its sacred burial grounds and threaten its water supply as it crosses the Missouri River just a mile from the tribe’s reservation.

From September 2016 members of the tribe, who were later joined by activists, blocked attempts to begin work on the site.

In December, Barack Obama denied an easement for the construction of the pipeline but Donald Trump signed an executive order approving it within days of entering the White House.

International leaders have condemned Mr Trump for pulling out of the agreement and the decision left the US “isolated” at the G20 in Hamburg earlier this month.