Earthjustice has a long history of partnering with tribes, Native groups, and Indigenous communities to ensure their natural and cultural resources are protected for future generations. Today, as Native peoples lead from the frontlines of many pivotal environmental fights, our Tribal Partnerships Program is proud to continue that tradition.

Listen to a conversation with attorneys Gussie Lord and Stefanie Tsosie on their work.

Partnering with Indigenous communities from coast to coast

From Alaska to Arizona and Hawaiʻi to Wisconsin, we are honored to partner with and represent more than 70 tribes and Indigenous communities fighting to protect their water, safeguard public and tribal land, oppose destructive extractive industries, and preserve their culture and way of life. Earthjustice and the Tribal Partnerships Program will continue to fight efforts to impair or destroy tribal or Indigenous lands, resources, or areas of cultural significance.

Elevating Indigenous voices and applying Indigenous knowledge

In addition, we will continue to elevate Indigenous voices on the frontlines of environmental degradation and destruction, and to support traditional land and wildlife management practices, which are crucial tools in our fight to combat climate change.

As Staff Attorney Stefanie Tsosie said: “A lot of Tribes are innovators. Earthjustice can be innovators with them and help elevate their voices, especially in the times we see now.”

Highlights of our work:

• With the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Earthjustice attorneys fought — and continue to fight — the Dakota Access Pipeline.
• Earthjustice attorneys in Alaska protect the Tongass National Forest, public lands of the Western Arctic, the Chukchi Sea, and countless rivers and streams that have supported subsistence practices of Alaska Native people for generations.
• Attorneys from the Northern Rockies Office defend the Badger-Two Medicine region, sacred to the Blackfeet Nation, from oil and gas drilling first proposed in 1982.
• The Rocky Mountain Office continues to fight to protect off-reservation cultural resources of the Tohono O’odham, Pascua Yaqui, and Hopi Tribes from the destruction of hardrock mining.
• Our Mid-Pacific Office in Hawaiʻi has long stood with Native Hawaiian communities to uphold rights to cultural access and resources and to establish legal principles that water is a public trust, which specifically protects Native water rights.
• Attorneys from the Northwest Office represent the Yurok Tribe in its fight to ensure flows in the Klamath River are adequate to protect salmon habitat and the Tribe’s ancient spiritual and subsistence practices.