Beata Tsosie Peña is a Tewa Indigenous woman from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico who is fighting for environmental justice and protection of her people’s ancestral land and the health and well being of the larger regional community. The region has been heavily impacted by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a United States federal laboratory producing nuclear weapons and doing biological and chemical testing, which contaminates of water, soil and air. Beata joined TEWA Women United (TWU), an inter-tribal organization that seeks to empower women, and works jointly with Las Mujeres Hablan (The Women Speak) and Communities for Clean Water (CCW) in order to fight for environmental justice, cultural preservation, reproductive rights, health, and food security. Beata has a holistic approach to her fight, and the manner in which she stands up against contamination on Mother Earth as a dual attack on bodies, rituals, spirituality and beliefs. Photo credit: International Journal on Human Rights
