In 2023, Milwaukee County signed a resolution declaring that the county’s water land has the right to exist and thrive free of human interference. Lina Tran, a reporter with Milwaukee’s NPR station, narrates the progression of this movement. Earlier in the year, a small group of WISDOM, a state interfaith organization, began to hear from the Indigenous Menīkānaehkem peoples about how Rights of Nature could be signed into law. Motivated by these voices, Supervisor Liz Sumner authored the resolution to offer legal protection to the waters of the county. This legal framework is critical not only for human gain, but also for the protection of landscapes. As the fight against pipelines in the Great Lakes surges on, women activists across the country now have firmer legal legs to stand on.
