Tribal Partnerships Program
Badger-Two Medicine. (Rebecca Drobis for Earthjustice)
(415) 217-2000
Email Tribal Partnerships Program
Media Inquiries
Timna Axel
Public Affairs and Communications Strategist
(773) 828-0712
taxel@earthjustice.org
Legal Assistance Inquiries
Contacto de Prensa
Robert Valencia
Estratega de Comunicaciones y Asuntos PĂşblicos Hispanos/Latinos
rvalencia@earthjustice.org
(212) 845-7376
Legal Alerts Email Listserv
For Tribes and Indigenous communities and affiliated in-house counsel interested in alerts on government notices, public comment periods, and more. Sign up.
Who We Are
Earthjustice’s Tribal Partnerships Program fights to ensure our Tribal and Indigenous clients’ natural and cultural resources are protected for future generations. See bar admissions for our attorneys.
Laura BerglanSenior Attorney
Caitlyn BrandtLitigation Assistant
Gussie LordManaging Attorney
Robert LundbergSenior Associate Attorney
Stefanie TsosieSenior Attorney
Our Impact
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.
Tribes and Indigenous communities and affiliated in-house counsel can receive email alerts and monthly summaries of government notices, public comment periods, and sign on opportunities for litigation and legislation through the Tribal Partnerships Program’s email listserv.
Partnering with Indigenous Communities from Coast to Coast
We proudly partner with and represent over 100 Tribes, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and other Indigenous groups who are fighting to protect their water, wildlife, and sacred lands from extractive industries. 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. “A lot of Tribes are innovators,” explains Senior Attorney Stefanie Tsosie. “Earthjustice can be innovators with them and help elevate their voices, especially in the times we see now.”
Highlights of Our Work:
- Alongside the International Program and Alaska regional office, we are working on behalf of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC), a consortium of 15 Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Nations, to oppose dangerous mining in the headwaters of the culturally significant Taku, Stikine, and Unuk Rivers.
- We are representing the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Wisconsin in efforts to stop the rerouting of Line 5, a dangerous and outdated oil pipeline that has been trespassing on their reservation for more than a decade. With colleagues in the Midwest office, we also represent the Bay Mills Indian Community in Michigan, whose way of life is threatened by the proposed Line 5 tunnel project.
- We are fighting in court on behalf of the Hualapai Tribe in Arizona to stop a lithium exploration operation that is endangering Tribal lands, including the sacred medicinal spring called Ha’Kamwe’ in the Big Sandy River Watershed.
- 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.
- We worked with the Penobscot Nation and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians to successfully defeat a mining proposal in Maine’s Katahdin region that was vehemently opposed by the Tribes, conservation groups, local outdoor recreation businesses, and hundreds of residents statewide.
- 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 in 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.
