From the Ecuadorian Amazon, Sarayaku stands in solidarity with the Sioux Nation in North Dakota in their peaceful struggle against the oil pipeline crossing their sacred land in Standing Rock.

From the Ecuadorian Amazon, Sarayaku stands in solidarity with the Sioux Nation in North Dakota in their peaceful struggle against the oil pipeline crossing their sacred land in Standing Rock. #NoDAPL

One of the Southeast U.S.’ and Gulf South's most renowned veterans of climate justice struggles as an activist, community organizer, coalition-builder, and award-winning litigating

One of the Southeast U.S.’ and Gulf South's most renowned veterans of climate justice struggles as an activist, community organizer, coalition-builder, and award-winning litigating environmental and human rights attorney, Colette Pichon Battle, born and raised in Bayou Liberty, Louisiana, focuses on creating spaces for frontline communities to gather and advance climate strategies that help them steward their water, energy, and land responsibly. She draws from her decades of experience fighting for equitable climate resilience to unearth historic lessons and exposes the root causes of the inequities and imbalances that characterize our relationships to the natural world and to each other. Colette argues that we must expand our understanding of what a genuine Climate Justice movement needs to encompass if we are to succeed in innovating a better future, and why such struggles as gender and migrant justice are inextricably connected to human rights for clean air, clean water, sovereign land, and community control of justly-sourced sustainable energy.

This keynote talk was delivered at the 2024 Bioneers Conference.

Jim Manion, Janeen Comenote, Allen Pinkham, Sr., A. Brian Wallace, and Patricia L. Whitefoot speak about their vision for hope.

12/3/09 — Ecotrust today recognized five of

Jim Manion, Janeen Comenote, Allen Pinkham, Sr., A. Brian Wallace, and Patricia L. Whitefoot speak about their vision for hope.

12/3/09 — Ecotrust today recognized five of the Wests most innovative indigenous leaders for their efforts to improve conditions in their communities. The recipients were selected by a panel of tribal leaders, and their efforts span the areas of youth advocacy, education, renewable energy, cultural restoration and scholarship.

The Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award has quietly become one of the preeminent programs honoring and supporting tribal, First Nation, and Alaska Native leaders in the West. Tribes and First Nations are more than an ethnic or minority demographic; they are nations and representative governments, major land owners, committed co-managers in natural resources, and they are major drivers of local and regional economies. Tribes, First Nations, and Alaska Natives hold long-range vision, sustainable societal values and a history of the land and marine and terrestrial ecosystems that provide a sense of place in the growing global economy.