SIPAYIK, Maine — On the Sipayik peninsula in Maine, Passamaquoddy tribal members are surrounded on three sides by water, and on all sides by reminders of their vulnerability to a changing climate.

They see it in a rising sea level that erodes beaches and drowns marshes.

They see it in their wastewater facility, which is at risk of a tidal flooding disaster.

They see it in the homes that can’t keep the weather out and residents who can’t afford their power bills.

And they see it in the collapse of ecosystems that have fed the Passamaquoddy people for generations.

For tribal members, it is not just a place they’ve called home for more than 10,000 years. It’s a place they’re striving hard to protect and prepare for what’s coming.

“That speaks to who we are, our namesake and what we’re about. It’s in our DNA. We’re fishers, we belong in this place,” said Sipayik resident Ralph Dana, 57, a tribal member who works as the aquatic restoration coordinator at the Sipayik Environmental Department.

Dana, a former Marine Corps private first class, game warden and tribal chief, has lived in Sipayik since he was 4 years old. He has watched Sipayik’s coastline give way to the rising sea and its fish disappear due to warming waters, a causeway and other infrastructure that has permanently altered the town’s ecosystem.

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