So far, I have discussed the inequality that exists between an indigenous community and organizations working in nexus of climate change and development. To better understand this silent conflict, I am eager to find out how a typical community looks at development and how its members make fundamental decisions to plan for their own future. In my attempt to search for a practical framework that can help me comprehend this view, I have distinguished a number of theories and frameworks from the subject fields of environment, development and conflict resolution. Each of these progressive fields approaches a community differently. In this chapter, I try to look through the eyes of researchers from each of these specialties and visualize the way they would study an indigenous community that is dealing with environmental uncertainty. I further attempt to answer a key question for researchers, namely, are any of these frameworks applicable for studying the view of an indigenous community facing development while being influenced by climate change?

Researching Community Views: Existing Frameworks

When researchers are particularly interested in gaining insight into the behavior of an indigenous community, they travel to the site and try to answer a research question or address a specific need. This common practice gives them an opportunity to get to know the community and explain its behavior based on the information they gather on the historical, social, economic and political contexts. Quite frequently, however, researchers initiate a given project by approaching the indigenous community from a modernity paradigm, in which such a community is expected to move from being nature dependent and primitive into a more modern, urban society.

In my former research life, I confess, an indigenous community wearing little red cloths and full- feather headdresses would automatically be classified as traditional. It is no secret that indigenous peoples are accustomed to making fundamental decisions based on experience and custom (Inglehart and Baker 2000). This means that they depend on long- term strategies developed from stories of existence that spread over decades and sometimes even centuries.