Tribal Emergency Management

This is the overview course for learning about emergency management in Tribal communities. It addresses historical and current concepts, policies, and doctrine that guide disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. It introduces common challenges for tribal emergency management professionals and programs.

TEM-110 introduces students to how sovereign Tribal Nations can use incident management structures like the Incident Command System (ICS) to coordinate response to disruptive events like emergencies and disasters. It will offer generalized principles of incident management but will also provide other examples of structures used in existing tribal emergency management programs.

This course teaches students to examine specific plans and planning processes that are critical, and often required, for successful tribal emergency management programs. TEM-120 will address how plans often assist in building and sustaining emergency management relationships with external partners and stakeholders.

This course provides an in-depth exploration of the development, structure, and operations of a Tribal Emergency Operations Center (TEOC). Students will gain practical knowledge on coordinating emergency responses, understanding policies and protocols, and working with non-Tribal partners. The course culminates in a final project where students will conceptualize or improve an EOC in their community.

This course will explore the importance of protecting, preserving, and restoring both tangible and intangible cultural heritage in the face of emergencies and disasters, and will describe how emergency management professionals can enhance their disaster planning utilizing traditional knowledge. Students will develop a final project (template) that catalogs what is historically and culturally important in their individual communities and worth consideration by emergency management for protection and preservation.