Language is at the heart of Diné identity, carrying with it stories, traditions, and a worldview deeply rooted in the land and history of the Navajo people. As Diné poets, educators, and language advocates work to sustain Diné Bizaad, many are embracing poetry, playwriting, and performance as tools for preservation and revitalization.Aresta Tsosie-Paddock is Naakaii Dine’é and born for Bįįh Bitoodnii. Her cheii is Tł’ízíłání and her nálí is Kinyaa’áanii.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 19, 2025Contact: Nizhoni Begay, WPLC Communications, communications@waterprotectorlegal.org, (210) 324-3393Breaking – Verdict in Landmark SLAPP Case Against Greenpeace: Water Protector Legal Collective Continues the Call for Corporate Transparency and Accountability, and Respect for Indigenous SovereigntyMandan, ND – A North Dakota jury has ruled in favor of Energy Transfer, awarding the company hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in its lawsuit against Greenpea

Tristan Ahtone of Grist magazine and K. Wayne Yang (a.k.a. la paperson) of the University of California San Diego will engage in an expansive dialogue on the...

Our Impact Report captures some of the highlights and significant achievements of our work, providing a glimpse into the comprehensive impact we are making. We are proud of the accomplishments featured, knowing they reflect only a portion of the full scope of our efforts.

The National Congress of American Indians - Defending Sovereignty since 1944

"Indigenous Peoples and Borders considers the problem of state borders, which are frequently legacies of colonialism, and their impact on Indigenous Peoples around the world. Indigenous lands are frequently divided by such borders creating difficulties for their Native inhabitants that were until recently largely disregarded by international law and international relations scholars. The contributors, including many Indigenous rights practitioners, take up issues of sovereignty, power, globalization, economic integration, and self-determination in areas from Bangladesh to the Russian Arctic to Mexico. The collection takes a comparative, multidisciplinary, and global approach showing the ways Indigenous Peoples are challenging and working around borders, even as they are constrained by them"--

The Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) is a national, community-based organization serving American Indian nations and people in the recovery and control of their rightful homelands. We work to promote education, increase cultural awareness, create economic opportunity, and reform the legal and administrative systems that prevent Indian people from owning and controlling reservation lands.

"Restoring Relations introduces, synthesizes, and analyzes traditional stories by Dine and Dene storytellers in orature and film. Restoring storied autonomy, identities, kinship, and languages is coming to a state of harmony, beauty, wellness, peace, and balance by recognizing hane' (story/narrative) in oral, literary, and visual formats (spoken, published, directed, and beaded). The book conceptualizes narrative autonomy as hane'tonomy and visual storytelling from a Dine perspective and offers a map for restorying that resists inauthentic and misappropriated stories. The base of the argument privilege Indigenous narratives and how these narratives are tied to land and relations. In the book's final movement, the author explores the power of story to forge ancestral and kinship ties between the Dine and Dene, across time and space through re-storying of relations"--

This Note attempts to determine how tribal governments such as the Navajo Nation can exercise greater control over and protect their Nation’s data from external entities. Tribal Nations or Indigenous Nations can exercise their political and cultural sovereignty by utilizing both Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) and Indigenous Data Governance (IDGov). This Note will examine the Māori’s application of IDSov within their own culturally-specific IDGov framework. Then, there will be an overview of the existing mechanisms available within the Navajo Nation legal system that govern data and the fundamental principles embedded in the culture of the Diné (Navajo) people. Finally, this Note will discuss recommendations that the Navajo Nation can incorporate into its legal system using the Māori’s example of its own data governance model and tools as a template. Overall, the goal of this Note is to demonstrate the legal mechanisms available to the Navajo Nation to implement its own set of data sovereignty principles aligning with its own traditional values, similar to the Māori in Aotearoa (New Zealand).

The urgency of the green transition hasn’t made tribal concerns any less important.

Forcing Indigenous people out of protected areas they help manage and rely on is not the way to achieve biodiversity and climate goals.