On her 38th birthday, Minnesota resident and Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe member Li Boyd woke up to the smell of smoke. Though she had planned to spend the day celebrating on a boat with family, the thick, yellow-gray haze outside her window made her worried about some of her family members who had respiratory issues. So they celebrated in her house, sealing the windows as tightly as they could. As wildfires across the U.S. become more frequent and intense, Boyd’s experience highlights how the impacts of wildfire pollution doesn’t impact all communities equally. Communities of color already shoulder a disproportionate burden of air pollution from sources like truck traffic and industrial waste sites. But for Indigenous communities, which tend to be located in rural areas closest to blazes and often have difficulties accessing air filters and upgrading homes to keep out the smallest particles, intensifying pollution from wildfires can make them more vulnerable than other groups. Tribes are now calling out a lack of federal funding for programs to monitor air pollution, as well as for upgrading homes and infrastructure to deal with the worsening smoke. And with government action lagging behind, some community members have begun waging a campaign of citizen science, installing low-cost air sensors that deliver data in real time and can help residents prepare for particularly dangerous air days. “It’s protecting our future generations... protecting our lungs, protecting our bodies from the smoke, the toxins,” said Rufina Abeita, membership coordinator for the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women. “These tools are here to help us have stronger communities and healthy families.” Click the link in our bio to read more.