Kayla Devault, a SustainUS delegate to the COP22 climate negotiations and Navajo activist, delivered a firey speech at the United Nations about the human rights violations the United States government and extractive industries have paradigmatically inflicted on Indigenous people. She argues for an understanding of the Dakota Access Pipeline fight that centers on not only the question of water and fossil fuels but also on tribal sovereignty. She expresses frustration of the sidelining of Indigenous interests at global summits, in a detailed anecdote from COP22 where she had difficulty as a member of a sovereign tribe lobbying those from the United States delegate. Photo credit: Piotr Lesniak
