Turtle Island

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30 10, 2024

Black Churches Have Always Led Social Movements. Why Not Climate Justice?

2025-07-29T22:32:46-04:00Tags: , |

Although climate change is a global phenomenon, its negative impacts are not distributed equally. Those most affected—particularly Black and brown communities—are often the very ones excluded from climate conversations. Historically, Black churches have served as incubators for social movements like the Civil Rights struggle. Building on that legacy, Antonique Smith and Reverend Sharon Lavigne co-founded Climate Revival, a movement that mobilizes people of color and people of faith in the fight for environmental justice. As a Grammy-nominated artist, Smith argues that the climate movement has overlooked powerful tools like music and storytelling—tools that have historically galvanized social change. Through nationwide tours, Smith and Lavigne host climate conversations and gospel concerts in churches across the country, raising awareness and helping communities recognize that climate justice is not only an environmental issue but also a deeply moral one.

11 10, 2024

Hurricane Milton Confirmed What Disabled Citizens Feared Most

2025-07-10T00:18:25-04:00Tags: , |

Hurricanes Milton and Helene, which swept through Florida in September and October of 2024, left the state devastated. Marianne Dhenin, an Atmos journalist, points out that such disasters confirm the harsh reality that disabled communities are disproportionately affected due to poor disaster planning. Persistent shortcomings—and the lack or absence of consideration for disabled people in emergency response—leave 61 million disabled individuals nationwide at high risk of fatality or critical injury during disasters. This has serious implications as climate change-fueled weather events become more intense and widespread. Dhenin emphasizes that despite the establishment of the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination in 2010, federal-level action—particularly by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)—has been slow to reach and support those affected. With too little governmental assistance, disabled people impacted by the hurricanes are turning to disability-led organizations such as New Disabled South and the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies.

30 09, 2024

After Generations in the Dark, This Group Is Bringing Solar Power to Tribal Lands

2025-07-09T23:37:40-04:00Tags: , , |

35% of households in the Hopi Reservation do not have access to electricity, this issue is not unique to the Hopi Nation. Historically Indigenous Nations in North America have been subjugated to energy insecurity because of these communities being overlooked when it comes to improving energy infrastructure and promoting the energy sector within these communities. Yessenia Funes highlights the work of Native Renewables, an Indigenous and women-founded organization bringing solar power to Indigenous communities in the Southwestern United States to address the years of systemic neglect from the U.S. government. On the Hopi reservation in Arizona, 35% of residents, and over 13,000 households across the Hopi and Navajo Nations, lack reliable electricity. Native Renewables is working to change that. Suzanne Singer, one of the founder's motivations, stems from her childhood summers spent with her grandparents in the Navajo Nation. Despite power lines running overhead, her family never had access to electricity. Today, Native Renewables is not only lighting homes but also creating jobs, generating around 19 new positions in the renewable energy sector within these communities. This initiative has been led by tribes amid the continued absence of government support and failed promises that have not only led to energy poverty, but have exacerbated public health crises. Parvannah Lee, a Diné healthcare worker from the Sleep Rock People Clan and Old Zuni Clan, joined Native Renewables after realizing the energy crisis contributes to interconnected systemic health gaps in her communities. Working with Native Renewables, she and other energy leaders have been cultivating economic stability for themselves, while working to build brighter futures for their communities.

8 02, 2024

New guidebook supports U.S. tribal nations in adopting rights-of-nature laws

2025-10-09T13:35:37-04:00Tags: , |

The “Guide to Rights of Nature in Indian Country” is a guidebook published by the Native-led Bioneers Indigeneity Program and authored by members of the Rights of Nature in Indian Country Team, including Cara Romero, Alexis Bunten, David Greendeer, Brittany Gondolfi, Samantha Skenandore, and Danielle Greendeer. The report provides strategies and resources for Indigenous communities interested in enacting laws granting ecosystems, landscapes, and species legal rights and personhood. The guidebook presents case studies of tribes that have enacted rights-of-nature laws, including through constitutions, ordinances, and resolutions, all while examining the pros and cons of each method, and examples of how tribes have navigated these decisions. A few of the several case studies covered of Tribal nations include the 2016 Ho-Chunk Nation resolution to add the rights of nature to its constitution; the 2017 Ponca Nation resolution to grant nature the right to exist and establish rights to clean air, water, and freedom from pollution; the 2018 White Earth Ojibwe resolution acknowledging the rights of wild rice to flourish; and the 2022 Sauk Tribe v. Seattle case with salmon as the plaintiff, resulting in the city agreeing to provide fish passages in any new permit or permit renewal for hydro dams. In addition to case studies, guidance is provided for community engagement steps like surveying community perspectives, holding educational gatherings, and forming planning committees, as well as tools and templates such as sample fliers, surveys, and presentations. Outside of this guidebook, the Bioneers Rights of Nature website states, “If you are interested in bringing this movement to your community, we would be happy to brainstorm with you.”

29 07, 2023

A New Food Bill of Rights: Why Representation Matters

2025-07-29T18:07:46-04:00Tags: , |

Women and Girls Advancing Nutrition, Dietetics, and Agriculture (WANDA) is a U.S.-based nonprofit focused on women and girls of African descent in the food system. WANDA has launched a national survey to help shape a new U.S. food bill of rights, aiming to address racial and gender inequalities by advocating for representation and equity across the food system to ensure healthy production and consumption. Less than 3% of nutritionists and only 1.5% of U.S. food producers are Black, with far fewer being women, largely due to discriminatory policies. WANDA's initiatives include national surveys, support for “food sheroes,” and Sisterhood Suppers that foster dialogue and build community. Founder Tambra Raye Stevenson emphasizes the importance of Black women’s inclusion in policymaking for a sustainable food future. The organization also advocates for addressing food apartheid and sees the fight for food justice as deeply intertwined with the fight for racial justice. WANDA collaborates with organizations like the NAACP to elevate these issues in policy discussions and celebrates WANDA Week, beginning on Juneteenth, to honor Black women’s contributions to the food system.

26 01, 2023

Extreme weather creates a food crisis for California farmworkers

2025-07-21T14:52:48-04:00Tags: , |

California’s farming industry has been strongly impacted by extreme weather events, including severe rainfalls that triggered mudslides, flooded communities, and killed numerous people while stripping others of their main sources of income and possessions. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that between 1.1 million and 1.9 million farmworkers and their family members face high levels of food insecurity. As a result of wildfires, heatwaves, drought and floods, various farm laborers are working fewer hours and their income has steadily decreased. Although the agricultural industry heavily depends on these vulnerable communities, farmworkers in California only earned an average $12 an hour, according to a 2015-2019 federal survey. Furthermore, many workers are undocumented and thus rarely qualify for unemployment, SNAP benefits, or state support such as the Calfresh Program. Farmworkers are part of the foundation of the United States and we must fight for their rights and lives.

22 11, 2022

Indigenous and Black Communities Find Common Cause for Land Justice

2025-07-29T17:54:12-04:00Tags: , |

Black and Indigenous communities in the United States are coming together in solidarity, drawing on parallel histories of dispossession to reclaim stolen land. They are engaging with land in ways that aim to build community economies and decouple economic development from exploitative and unsustainable systems of extraction, exploitation, and trade. Reclaiming land and securing reparations that heal and strengthen communities oppressed under colonialism, capitalism, and slavery are key pillars of climate justice. By extending Indigenous land care, stewardship, and governance over ancestral territories, the Indigenous-led land rights movement is creating sustainable systems rooted in cultural values. This movement is shifting land from market-driven ownership into models of collective care. Examples include the Wiyot Tribe’s Dishgamu Humboldt Community Land Trust and the Native Land Conservancy. In Northern California, the Yurok Tribe is restoring timberlands that are both culturally and ecologically significant. Integrated land management systems, such as the Cultural Fire Management Council and the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network, are also transforming the way land is cared for. For Black communities, the land rights movement is grounded in the reclamation of farmlands and the fight against racist policies that have long blocked land ownership, such as redlining and restrictive lending practices. In this collaborative fight for land rights, both communities must continue to embrace their parallels and act in solidarity.

15 06, 2022

Climate Denial’s Racist Roots

2025-07-09T23:46:46-04:00Tags: , , , |

In 2022, a string of mass shootings in Buffalo, El Paso, and Christchurch shocked the world with a horrific new trend—ecofascism. Mary Annaïse Heglar points out that all the shooters were young White men who had been exposed to misinformation and right-wing media ecosystems, choosing to take matters into their own hands rather than hold political leaders accountable. Heglar highlights how the common thread between gun culture, climate change, and disinformation is White supremacy. Climate denial or dismissal is not rooted in a rejection of scientific evidence, but rather in the fact that the worst effects of climate change disproportionately impact people of color, communities in the Global South, and the poor. In the eyes of White supremacists and ecofascists, Heglar explains, climate change is perversely embraced for its potential to eliminate so-called "undesirable" non-white populations. Consequently, the climate crisis threatens to deepen racism even further.

24 09, 2020

Quannah Chasinghorse is fighting to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

2025-07-09T23:30:44-04:00Tags: , |

In March 2020, PhD candidate and climate justice organizer Maia Wikler traveled to Alaska to meet with Quannah Chasinghorse to report on the human rights and climate crises in the Arctic. Chasinghorse is a Han Gwich’in and Oglala Lakota youth advocate fighting alongside her mother and fellow women in her community to protect their homelands from oil drilling. Long before the designation as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an ecologically diverse swath of 20 million acres, this area has been a sacred calving ground for the porcupine caribou herd. It has been home to Indigenous communities for millennia, and their identity and wellbeing are inextricably linked to the wellbeing of the land. Exacerbated by melting permafrost and increased wildfires from climate change, the Arctic is one of the most vulnerable ecosystems in the world, and previous drilling operations have shown that it cannot withstand the impacts of fossil fuel development. Boldly resisting this, Chasinghorse travels across the country with fellow Gwich’in youth and women to advocate for fossil fuel divestment and a halt to all proposed development. Sharing their story has already prompted five major banks to cease backing future Arctic drilling operations. This intergenerational movement to defend the refuge from the extractive industries and ongoing colonialism causing the biodiversity and climate crises is deeply intersectional. It is strongly connected to their advocacy for Indigenous rights and justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women. Chasinghorse shows us that the power of today’s youth is a driving force for change and reason for hope. This is a collective effort to fight for the protection of the Arctic, the wellbeing of Indigenous communities, and the prosperity of future generations.

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