Supporting Indigenous-Led Environmental Justice

Chilkat Indian Village (CIV) is working to stop the Palmer Mine Project, which will eventually lead to larger protection of the Chilkat Valley from industrial-scale, hard-rock mining and other large-scale industrial and municipal development projects that permanently degrade the land, air, water, plants, and animals of traditional territory. CIV is a federally recognized tribal government, which includes the Tribal Council mandated by its Tribal Constitution to protect and maintain the lands, waterways, and subsistence resources of the Jilkaat Kwaan’s Territory for all Lingit people. CIV Tribal Council and staff have been working to stop the Palmer Mine for over eight years. This year, they continue to advocate for long-term protection strategies that include a land buy-back initiative, Tier 3 waterbody designations, and the expansion of the jurisdiction of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.

Mother Kuskokwim Coalition is a collective of tribes and allies working together to stop the development of the Donlin Gold Mine, which would be the largest open-pit mine in North America and the largest pure gold mine in the world. Donlin is located 10 miles upstream from the village of Crooked Creek, a smelt and salmon-spawning tributary of the Kuskokwim River with hydrologic connection to the Yukon, as well. This year, the coalition is advocating for the Biden administration to revoke the Trump Era 404 permit and conduct a supplemental EIS that considers new information regarding climate, human health, climate justice, tribal justice, human rights, and increasingly declining salmon runs. It is also working to convince Calista Corporation (Alaska Native Regional Corporation and sub-surface landowner) to withdraw from the project and empower tribes and members to voice their opposition, and practice their sovereignty, over their natural resources, while encouraging the development of self-sustainable economies.

Apache Stronghold is a Native-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit community organization of individuals who come together in unity to battle continued colonization and defend sacred sites, and who are dedicated to building a better community through neighborhood programs and civic engagement. They work from San Carlos, Arizona, connecting Apaches and other Native and non-Native allies from all over the world to protect Chi’chil Biłdagoteel (also known as Oak Flat), a sacred site for Apache people and many other Indigenous people. This year, Apache Stronhold is extending community outreach and education on the toxic effects of mining to the greater Phoenix area. They will also travel to the U.S. Supreme Court to continue to advocate for the protection of Oak Flat as they await the court’s decision on Apache Stronghold v. United States.

Women of Bears Ears (WOBE) is a collective of Indigenous women advocating for the rematriation of ancestral lands to address climate change, racial injustice, and environmental justice to support and protect their communities. WOBE seeks to restore Indigenous women’s matrilineal roles as decision-makers, culture bearers, and nurturers of shared ancestral lands, and of future generations. This year, WOBE is working toward attaining 501(c)(3) status, and as an independent nonprofit will launch a fundraising campaign in communication and collaboration with partners, donors, and supporters for the purpose of rematriating 5 acres of ancestral land rooted in culture, arts, food, language, and healing. This space will allow them to continue their advocacy work and implementation of cultural, educational, and intergenerational land stewardship practices.

Skaroreh Katenuaka Tuscarora creates cultural education for the next seven generations and provides its multigenerational community with a chance to see the untouched environment of their ancestors. The tribe is working to secure land in its name and create a buffer zone to protect the area from further development and destruction. The land mass will be utilized and leveraged to perform ceremonies for multigenerational and multiage mentoring in land stewardship and cultural lifeways.

Dooda (No) Helium Extraction opposes the extraction of helium, oil, and gas in Beautiful Mountain, Porcupine Dome, Littlewater, and surrounding Nihookáá’ Diyin Diné’é Bikéyah. The organization continues to attend chapter meetings in Dinétah to increase community awareness and education around the negative effects of helium extraction, specifically addressing the barrier of the inability to translate the language of extraction into Diné Bizaad. They continue to connect with other local environmental protection organizations and are currently working to stop a hydrogen project in northwest New Mexico.

People of Red Mountain (Atsa Koodakuh wyh Nuwu) is a grassroots organization comprised of Fort McDermitt tribal descendants who deeply oppose the lithium mines threatening their homelands and are actively working to stop the proposed Lithium Nevada/Lithium Americas mine at Thacker Pass, Nevada, known as Peehee Mu’huh (Rotten Moon) by the Paiute and Shoshone people. Peehee Mu’huh contains sacred burial sites and is the site of two massacres, in addition to 923 cultural sites, many of which are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The organization continues to host annual educational camping commemorations for the massacres and engage with the wider community around solutions for climate change that do not harm sacred landscapes.

Magpie Buffalo Organizing continues their work opposing lithium, magnetite, gold, and other rare-earth mineral mining in the Black Hills. The organization is working with the Clean Water Alliance, NDN Collective, and Dakota Rural Action to prevent lithium mines from destroying the Black Hills. This year, they are working to create a film titled, “The Great Race,” which will involve elders and youth from local communities to highlight the need to protect the Black Hills. They are also working to meet with local groups and tribes to advocate for the change of the Tribal Historic Preservation Office and ensure that water codes and policies are more protective.

The Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas has been instrumental in fighting the fossil-fuel extraction industry and working to prevent them from destroying habitats, polluting water, land, and air with emissions and toxic waste. The tribe has also pushed for due diligence and due process in the permitting of construction phases in the Rio Grande Valley and across south and west Texas. The tribe is on continuous alert about the ongoing border wall construction under the Biden administration and works to protect sites of greater cultural significance from further destruction. This year, the tribe is continuing their work on advocacy and awareness of these threats, including one overseas trip to meet with allies and identify potential partners to put legal pressure on fossil fuel companies in the Texas region.

Pueblo Action Alliance is a community-driven, grassroots organization that protects Pueblo cultural sustainability and community defense by addressing environmental and social impacts in Indigenous communities. They center Indigenous solutions as a means to dismantle and eradicate white supremacy, capitalism, imperialism, heteropatriarchy, and extractive colonialism. This year, they are focusing on their youth organizers to carry out youth programming for initiatives such as Protect Greater Chaco, No False Solutions, Community Defense, and WaterBack. Under the Protect Greater Chaco initiative, they participate in organized fracking tours and strengthen Pueblo/Diné solidarity through protection of sacred lands and waters.

Sassafras is an Indigenous Wôpanâak nonprofit on Nôepe (Martha’s Vineyard) founded in 2003. They offer programs, events, and trainings that reconnect youth and adults to the earth through Indigenous mentoring to create a truly equitable community space, and to restore earth-centered, regenerative Indigenous cultures. This year, Sassafras is working on earth restoration and invasive species removal, and continuing their Land Culture project, a local permaculture project that restores the land to First Peoples’ values and practices.

The Tewa people have lived with the forced occupation of Los Alamos National Laboratories since the beginning of the Manhattan Project in 1943 and the development of the first atomic bomb. The Indigenous and land-based Peoples of New Mexico were the first “unwilling and unknowing” victims of a nuclear blast, followed by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Tewa Women United engages in dialogue and activism on nuclear abolition, human rights, and the rights of Nung Ochuu Quiyo, Our Earth Mother, while integrating Tewa values and spirit-rooted environmental justice advocacy, policy change, and community education. This year, they continue to advocate widely for nuclear abolition, and will host several community workshop days around environmental justice awareness. They also work to expand their food and seed sovereignty initiatives, as well as create spaces for herbalism and medicine-making as a means of healing from extractive industries.

Hui Makaʻāinana o Makana (Hui) is a community-based organization formed in 1998 by lineal descendants of Hāʻena. Hui creates educational initiatives to teach the skills, knowledge, and practices of our kūpuna through interpretation, restoration, care, conservation, and protection of natural and cultural resources in Hāʻena, Kauaʻi. They actively shape current and future generations of conservationists,ʻāina stewards, cultural practitioners, and community advocates. This year, Hui continues to address the devastating floods of 2018 to restore and maintain about 15 acres of land and to provide internship opportunities to the youth of Hāʻena around stewardship and sustainable, regenerative tourism for the state of Hawaiʻi.

Apache Stronghold is a Native-led 501©3 nonprofit community organization that works to defend sacred sites of the San Carlos Apache Tribe through neighborhood programs, civic engagement, and working with Native and Non-Native allies from across the world. In 2022, with funding through First Nations, Apache Stronghold will focus on rolling out a national awareness campaign to protect Oak Flat.

Blackfeet Nation’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO) will partner with the MAPS Media Institute Media Lab to help raise local awareness about the 1896 agreement that provided a 99-year lease to the Badger-Two Medicine. The Tribe plans to work with MAPS and youth from local high schools to produce a 30-minute re-enactment documentary that will be used in local schools and provide students an opportunity to learn about film production. The documentary will also be used as a new tool in court and congress to help raise awareness of the history of the Badger-Two Medicine as a vital part of the Blackfeet reservation.

Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment’s Helium Education work has centered on public education, outreach and organizing in Navajo Nation communities to understand, mitigate, and prevent further development and expansion of helium/oil and gas drilling. This work has involved research and the development of public education materials in the form of reports, handouts, and a short documentary on the history of helium, oil, and gas operations on Navajo Nation lands, its associated environmental and human health impacts, and recommendations for Navajo communities when faced with helium proposals and leasing in their areas. Other components of the work include collaboration with partner organizations in documenting pollution from emitting oil and gas wells in helium leasing areas on Navajo Nation lands, followed by filing complaints to regulatory agencies, as well as collecting air samples. Additionally, the work has included organizing in person experiential learning opportunities for the public in the form of field tours, provided for key members of the public, media, and Navajo Nation officials. Lastly, the work also responds to community requests in the form of presentations, meetings, printed handouts and other forms of support.

Dooda (No) Helium Extraction Organization is a Native-led grassroots organization whose mission is to protect the Navajo Nation’s land, water and air from contamination. With First Nations funding, the organization will outreach to Navajo Nation chapters to educate community members of the negative effects of helium extraction in their communities. The organization will also protest various extraction activities on Navajo Nation including helium, oil, gas, coal, among others.

International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) is an organization of Indigenous peoples from North, Central, and South America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific working for the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous people. IITC was awarded a grant to organize and host a second Border Issues and Right Symposium and Hearing on the Tohono O’odham reservation in January 2023 to increase awareness around the impacts of the US/Mexico border wall on the Indigenous nations that it has divided and to bring together impacted people and communities to share experiences and develop strategies for defense and healing. Themes will include protection of and access to sacred sites on both sides of the border, ecosystem and bio-diversity protection and restoration, the devastating impacts of the border wall construction on Organ Pipe National Monument Park, as well as the psychological, emotional, and cultural impacts of increased border militarism on Indigenous communities.

Magpie Buffalo Organizing works through networking and advocacy to promote and protect the Silent Nations and sacred sites in the Black Hills region of South Dakota from gold, uranium and rare earth mining. Through previous Broad Reach funding, the group was able to educate the public around permitting processes and develop an organizational website that provides more detailed information regarding regulations, policy and case law that could be used to protect the region from further development by extractive industries. Through a 2022 grant, the organization plans to host camps in the Black Hills for ceremony and pilgrimages, meet with local groups to organize tribes in the area to develop more protective water codes, and to create a film entitled “The Great Race,” which will involve elders and youths from local tribal communities and will highlight the need to protect the Black Hills.

People of Red Mountain (Atsa Koodakuh wyh Nuwu) is a grassroots organizing group comprised of Fort McDermitt tribal descendants who deeply oppose the lithium mines that are threatening their homelands and is actively working to stop the proposed Lithium Nevada/Lithium Americas mine at Thacker Pass, Nevada, which is known as Peehee Mu’huh (Rotten Moon) by the Paiute and Shoshone people. Peehee Mu’huh contains sacred burial sites and is the site of two massacres, in addition to 923 cultural sites, many of which are eligible for the National Register of Historical Places. The organization plans to use grant funds to organize an awareness event, keep up billboards, and provide newsletters to communities that will be directly affected by the proposed lithium mine.

Pueblo Action Alliance is a community driven grassroots organization that protects Pueblo cultural sustainability and community defense by addressing environmental and social impacts in Indigenous communities. The organization will work to continue campaigns and programming to protect Chaco Canyon and the surrounding communities from extractive activities.

United Tribes of Bristol Bay (UTTB) is raising awareness and support through a broad coalition of partners and supporters to protect Bristol Bay from the Pebble Mine Project. Bristol Bay, Alaska, is home to a thriving, pristine ecosystem with an abundance of wildlife that supports the subsistence way of life of Indigenous communities in the region. It is also the headwaters for two of the greatest wild salmon producing rivers in the world, the Kvichak and Nushagak Rivers. The proposed Pebble Mine would become the largest open-pit mine in North America and poses a significant threat to the region’s water, fish, wildlife and cultural heritage. The United Tribes of Bristol Bay is carrying out national outreach and educational campaign to highlight the importance of protecting Bristol Bay from this proposed project.

Women of Bears Ears (WOBE) is a collective of Indigenous women advocating for the rematriation of ancestral lands to address climate change, racial injustice, and environmental justice to support and protect their communities. The organization works to protect Bears Ears and the tribes living adjacent to the region, particularly from extractive industries like uranium mining. With a grant from First Nations, the organization plans to host a WOBE Strategic Gathering for members to share their expertise and knowledge on the current issues and threats as well as opportunities for potential coalition building work around Bears Ears co-management, uranium mining and other extractive industries. The outcome of this gathering will be a collectively written WOBE position statement on this issues that will be shared on their website.

Apache Stronghold is a Native-led nonprofit organization that works to defend the sacred sites of the San Carlos Apache Tribe through neighborhood programs and civic engagement, and by working with Native and non-Native allies around the world. The organization is carrying out public awareness campaigns and litigation efforts to stop the destruction of Oak Flat, a culturally significant site for the local Apache Tribes.

The Blackfeet Nation Tribal Historic Preservation Office is working toward permanent protection for the Badger Two-Medicine in Montana through raising local awareness and educating the public on the cultural, social, and environmental importance of the area.

Camp Migizi is a Two-Spirit Indigenous and BIPOC-led community fighting for Indigenous rights, decolonization, and embodying BIPOC solidarity. Created on Fond du Lac lands in direct response to the multilayered threat of the Line 3 pipeline, the organization leads a frontline encampment and protest activities to stop the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline and hold the company accountable for removing the old pipeline that is threatening the land and water of Native and non-Native communities in northern Minnesota.

For decades, the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas has worked to combat the fossil fuel extraction industry in Texas to prevent the destruction of habitats and pollution of the land, water and air with emissions and toxic waste. The Tribe has continuously pushed for greater due diligence and due process in the permitting and construction phases of projects. The Tribe currently has frontline protest encampments in the Rio Grande Valley and across south and west Texas to protect sites of great cultural significance from further destruction from extractive industries as well as border wall construction. The Tribe plans to use litigation tactics to stop liquified natural gas pipeline and border wall construction by conducting outreach and educational activities to raise public awareness of these threats.

The Chilkat Indian Village is located at Klukwan on the banks of the Chilkat River in Southeast Alaska just 22 miles north of Haines, Alaska. The Chilkat River provides an abundant source of fish, game, berries, and medicinal plants that the Tribe relies on for subsistence and that is now being threatened by the development of the nearby Palmer Mine Project. The Chilkat Indian Village is exploring ways to permanently protect the Chilkat Valley from industrial-scale hard rock mining and other large-scale industrial, municipal, or commercial development projects that would permanently degrade the land, air, water, plants and animals within their traditional territory. They aim to do this through coalition building, government-to-government consultation, and research and analysis of potential long-term protection strategies, including land buy back initiatives, Tier 3 waterbody designations, and expanding the jurisdiction of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.

Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government continues to pursue protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a cultural landscape under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act through tribal consultation and litigation efforts. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is part of the ancestral range of the Gwich’in people and key to their survival. It serves as the calving grounds for the Porcupine caribou.

The Orutsararmiut Native Council (ONC) is the governing body for the Alaska Native community of Bethel, Alaska. The Tribe’s way of life is being threatened by the development of the Donlin Gold Mine, a massive open-pit complex next to the Kuskokwim River in southwest Alaska, which presents devastating risks to wild salmon habitat from the west side of the Cook Inlet through the Susitna Valley drainage into the Kuskokwim watershed. As the most important subsistence river for Native Tribes in Alaska, pollution discharges and habitat destruction caused by the mine threatens dozens of Native villages that depend on these resources for their food, culture, and economies. The ONC plans to take collective action to outreach and educate Alaskans on the negative impacts of the Donlin Gold Project.

The Southeast Indigenous Climate Change Working Group of the RedTailed Hawk Collective (RTHC)  was first formed as a unified base for the tribes of North Carolina to collectively oppose the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The group raises awareness around tribal, cultural resources, and natural resource concerns from the fossil fuel industry activities. RTHC is developing materials to educate Tribes in North Carolina to increase understanding and function of self-determination, including strengthening policies and procedures that support tribal sovereignty on matters that directly impact their historic and current territories.

United Tribes of Bristol Bay (UTTB) is raising awareness and support through a broad coalition of partners and supporters to protect Bristol Bay from the Pebble Mine Project. Bristol Bay, Alaska, is home to a thriving, pristine ecosystem with an abundance of wildlife that supports the subsistence way of life of Indigenous communities in the region. It is also the headwaters for two of the greatest wild salmon producing rivers in the world, the Kvichak and Nushagak Rivers. The proposed Pebble Mine would become the largest open-pit mine in North America and poses a significant threat to the region’s water, fish, wildlife and cultural heritage. The United Tribes of Bristol Bay is carrying out national outreach and educational campaign to highlight the importance of protecting Bristol Bay from this proposed project.

Blackfeet Nation will develop two narrative reports on the history of oil and gas leasing in the Badger Two Medicine and outline the tribe’s rights to co-manage the area under the 1896 Agreement with the federal government. They will use these resources to educate the community on their rights to co-manage the Badger Two Medicine.

Juan Mancias of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe for Project Stop Texas LNG

Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe will use funding for ongoing support of protest encampments and pursue litigation to protect the Garcia Pasture, a sacred site in the Rio Grande Valley listed on the National Register of Historic Places and threatened by an export terminal and associated pipelines from Texas Liquified Natural Gas (LNG).

Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment will continue to support the opposition of oil and gas drilling in the Chaco Canyon area, which specifically threatens the public health, Navajo culture, and tribal sovereignty of the Navajo Nation.

Gwich’in Steering Committee will continue to ensure the long-term health and viability of the Porcupine Caribou Herd breeding grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which sustain the Gwich’in way of life and are under renewed threat of oil and gas exploration, and will address the climate crisis and its impact on food security through the Indigenous Climate Summit.

Magpie Buffalo Organizing is working to prevent the destruction and desecration of the Sacred HeSapa from gold, uranium, rare earths and aggregate mining in the Black Hills. Plans include community action and advocacy campaigns hosted on their weekly radio show (Sacred Sites on KILI-FM Radio). The organization will also practice their Seven Sacred Rites in an informal and formal camp setting to raise awareness. In addition, they will work closely with the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s Technical Team with upcoming tribal consultations with the EPA and BLM by providing and gathering written comments and testimony as needed.

Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin will continue to pursue opposition to the Back 40 Mine, where extraction of minerals could ultimately create acid mine drainage, which could damage historic and culturally significant sites, including burial mounds and agricultural land.

Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government exercise their sovereign rights to oppose the recent Record of Decision to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas drilling through litigation strategies.

Sicangu Lakota Treaty Council will protect tribal homelands from the Keystone XL pipeline proposed to go through the Great Sioux Reservation. Funds will directly support continued community outreach and engagement, as well as completion of their strategic plan and tribal council education on the Keystone XL pipeline.

Utah Dine’ Bikeyah will engage local Native American communities in restoring the 1.3 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument and advocating for the protection of the full 1.9 million acres in the original Bears Ears proposal. They will also support the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, defend its position in court, and continue to develop the foundation for a land-use plan that will preserve and restore Native American activities.

Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe will use funding for ongoing support of protest encampments and pursue litigation to protect the Garcia Pasture, a sacred site in the Rio Grande Valley listed on the National Register of Historic Places and threatened by an export terminal and associated pipelines from Texas Liquified Natural Gas (LNG).

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission will support proactive policy and litigation strategies for the protection of treaty-reserved resources and improve federal and state policies for consistency with tribal treaty rights.

Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment will support the opposition of oil and gas drilling in the Chaco Canyon area, which specifically threatens the public health, Navajo culture, and tribal sovereignty of the Navajo Nation.

Gwich’in Steering Committee will ensure the long-term health and viability of the Porcupine Caribou Herd breeding grounds at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which sustain the Gwich’in way of life and are under renewed threat of oil and gas exploration and to address the climate crisis and its impact on food security through the Indigenous Climate Summit.

Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin will pursue opposition to the Back 40 Mine, where extraction of minerals could ultimately create acid mine drainage, which could damage historic and culturally significant sites, including burial mounds and agricultural land.

Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government will exercise their federally recognized rights to participate as a cooperating agency in the Environmental Impact Study that is being fast-tracked to open drilling exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to ensure traditional knowledge and historical laws are taken into consideration.

Red-Tailed Hawk Collective will support the Southeast Indigenous Climate Change Working Group to provide outreach to Native communities, tribes, and organizations in their efforts to oppose the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and associated infrastructure in North Carolina. This work also involves the development and implementation of climate change strategies.

Sicangu Lakota Treaty Council will protect tribal homelands from the Keystone XL pipeline proposed to go through the Great Sioux Reservation that was established by treaty. Funds will directly support community outreach and engagement.

United Tribes of Bristol Bay will support grassroots organizing in soliciting public comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement issued for Pebble Mine project, a proposed massive open-pit mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay in Alaska. The proposed mine would devastate pristine habitat that sustains the world’s largest salmon run that is essential to the culture and livelihoods of the tribes in this region.

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission will support proactive policy and litigation strategies for the protection of treaty-reserved resources and improve federal and state policies for consistency with tribal treaty rights.

Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment will support the opposition of oil and gas drilling in the Chaco Canyon area, which specifically threatens the public health, Navajo culture, and tribal sovereignty of the Navajo Nation.

Gwich’in Steering Committee will ensure the long-term health and viability of the Porcupine Caribou Herd breeding grounds at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which sustain the Gwich’in way of life and are under renewed threat of oil and gas exploration and to address the climate crisis and its impact on food security through the Indigenous Climate Summit.

Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin will pursue opposition to the Back 40 Mine, where extraction of minerals could ultimately create acid mine drainage, which could damage historic and culturally significant sites, including burial mounds and agricultural land.

Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government will exercise their federally recognized rights to participate as a cooperating agency in the Environmental Impact Study that is being fast-tracked to open drilling exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to ensure traditional knowledge and historical laws are taken into consideration.

The Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma will acquire ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for the Natural Resource Officers’ day-to-day investigations, establish training, and integrate this process to create a Subsurface Investigation Protocol to protect groundwater resources.