Indigenous Forum – Rights of Nature: Rivers as Roads to an Indigenized Legal Future
Tribal nations across Indian Country are transforming their legal systems and influencing the broader legal landscape by formally recognizing rivers as living relatives with inherent rights. This past year, the Colorado River and Rappahannock tribes advanced “Rights of Nature” laws to protect their waterways and reinforce their sovereignty, exemplifying a larger reinvigoration of Indigenous jurisprudence. This panel features leaders and water protectors who have been instrumental in landmark legal victories who will discuss: how these laws were crafted through community consultation and collaborative processes among elders, youth, scientists, and legal experts; share their ongoing efforts to empower tribes to advocate for their waterways as relatives; and ensure that rivers, fish, and ecosystems are acknowledged as kin with standing under the law. Hosted by attorney Samantha Skenandore (Ho-Chunk), leading national expert on Federal Indian Law. With: Anne Richardson, Rappahannock Tribe Chief; William E. Ray, Jr., Tribal Chairman, Klamath Tribes, others TBA.
March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
Panelists
Samantha Skenandore
Leading Indigenous Rights Advocate and Attorney
Samantha Skenandore, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation who previously served as a Tribal Attorney for the Ho-Chunk Nation’s Department of Justice and clerked for the United States Department of Justice, Indian Resources Section, is a founding partner of Skenandore Wilson LLP with 20+ years’ multi-jurisdictional legal experience working with tribal governments and enterprises to build governmental and economic infrastructures across Indian Country. She works in a wide range of legal domains, including: tribal and corporate governance, business transactions, economic development, real estate, cultural resources, water rights, labor issues, and representing clients before members of Congress, congressional committees and federal agencies. Samantha has also been integral to the Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, helping develop a toolkit to help frame legal considerations for tribal nations to consider adoption of “Rights of Nature" laws.
Chief Anne Richardson
Chief
Rappahannock Tribe
Chief Anne Richardson, Chief of the Rappahannock Tribe since 1998, is a 4th generation chief in her family and the first woman to lead a tribe in Virginia since the 1700s. She has a long legacy of community leadership and service and has been instrumental in building her people’s institutions and infrastructure, including working tirelessly to purchase some of the tribe’s ancestral lands along the river that bears their name, developing a “Master Plan for the Return to the River,” a groundbreaking sovereignty and conservation initiative. Among her many achievements Chief Richardson founded the Indigenous Conservation Council for the Chesapeake Bay and serves or has served on a number of state, regional and federal advisory committees and boards.
William E. Ray, Jr
