Thursday, March 26th
4:45 pm: Expanding the Rights of Nature by Enabling Land to Own Itself
Co-hosted by Sacred Contract
Sacred Contract, an organization committed to re-imagining our relationship to land by restoring a sacred and culturally-aligned relationship between humans and the rest of nature, designed and then stewarded the process of a mountain in Colorado becoming the first in the world to transition from human ownership to “owning itself.” In this panel, board members of Sacred Contract will explain: how “land sovereignty” differs from traditional land conservation models; the role of majority Indigenous-led Land Guardian councils; and how the “land that owns itself” concept could potentially radically enhance ecosystems’ protection against destructive extractive assaults. With: Jennifer Menke of Regenerative Earth; Cassandra Ferrera and Abi Huff of the Center for Ethical Land Transition; Thomas Linzey, attorney with the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights; and Delubina Romero, Indigenous grandmother and elder.
March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Campanile Room, 6th Floor, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Panelists
Jennifer Menke
Founder and Executive Director | Regenerative Earth
Jennifer Menke, founder and Executive Director of Regenerative Earth and co-founder of Sacred Contract, is: a lecturer for the University of Colorado's Masters of Environment program; guest lecturer at the University of International Cooperation (UCI); and a facilitator for the Bio-leadership Fellowship. She has throughout her career used systems-mapping, facilitation, and strategic design to help local communities, Indigenous tribes, governments, foundations, businesses, and organizations develop and implement collaborative strategies to meet conservation targets, give rights to nature, enhance community wellbeing, and stimulate regenerative economies.
Cassandra Ferrera
Director | Center for Ethical Land Transition
Cassandra Ferrera, Director of the non-profit Center for Ethical Land Transition dedicated to the “land justice” movement, i.e., the process of achieving repair, healing and justice rooted in sacred relationship with land, previously had 22 years’ experience as a real estate agent and consultant supporting groups in cooperative stewardship and land decommodification. She is a resident of the Landwell Community in Northern California.
Abi Huff
Co-Director and Program Lead | Center for Ethical Land Transition
Abi Huff is the Co-Director and Program Lead at the Center for Ethical Land Transition whose purpose is to support Black, Indigenous, and diasporic communities with pro-bono, solidarity-based land transition facilitation.
Thomas Linzey
Senior Legal Counsel | Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
Thomas Linzey, Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary community rights movement, drafted the very first “rights of nature” law in the world (in Pennsylvania in 2006), and consulted on the very first rights of nature constitutional provisions (in Ecuador). Linzey co-founded the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, sits on the Board of Advisors of the New Earth Foundation and is the author of several books, including: Be The Change: How to Get What You Want in Your Community and On Community Civil Disobedience in the Name of Sustainability. Linzey’s work has been featured widely, including in leading publications including the NY Times, Mother Jones and the Nation magazine.
Delubina Romero
Indigenous grandmother and elder
Delubina Romero, an Indigenous grandmother and elder, works with the Sacred Contract initiative, a project of the Center for Ethical Land Transition, the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, and Regenerative Earth, whose purpose is to enable land and ecosystems to "own themselves" and be represented by Indigenous-led, multi-cultural guardianship councils. She is on the Guardian Council that tends to Pyramid Mountain in Colorado, the first mountain in the U.S. to “own itself.” She has also worked with the Kogi people of Colombia and is an active participant in Sun Dance ceremonies.
Friday, March 27th
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; Ashia Wilson, Director of Maqlaqs Paddle; Jasmine Smith, founder and Chair of NAIWA Daughters.
March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Berkeley Ballroom, Residence Inn
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.
Jasmine Smith
Founder and Chair | NAIWA Daughters
Jasmine Smith, 16, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is an internationally recognized Indigenous youth leader, poet, and Founder and Chair of NAIWA Daughters, a youth-led nonprofit advancing Indigenous young women’s leadership, advocacy, and civic power. Jasmine has delivered keynote addresses at the Model United Nations Conference, working with Italian ambassadors, spoken before the Tennessee State Senate, working with Knox County representatives, and introduced the nation’s first all-female, second youth-led Rights of Nature resolution. A two-time Tennessee Civic Essay Award winner, she is a guest lecturer at the University of Tennessee, United World College in Costa Rica, and other academic institutions. Through her work, Jasmine bridges Indigenous knowledge, youth leadership, and environmental justice.
Ashia Wilson
Director | Maqlaqs Paddle
Ashia Wilson is the Director of Maqlaqs Paddle, a Klamath Modoc‑led nonprofit dedicated to reconnecting Klamath, Modoc, and Numu youth—and other river‑based Indigenous peoples—to their ancestral waterways through culturally grounded paddlesports to restore relationships between people and river by providing accessible, community‑centered programming in whitewater kayaking, recreational kayaking, expedition paddling, canoeing, and rafting.
Human activities, primarily overfishing, pollution, and climate change are causing unprecedented damage to marine ecosystems, leading to massive biodiversity loss and the destruction of habitats, problems that cannot be solved by Western science and policy alone. Indigenous knowledge rooted in generations of observation and relationship with marine species is critical to the defense and regeneration of the oceans that we all depend upon. In this panel, we will hear from three Indigenous leaders fighting to protect keystone marine species from the foundation to the apex of the food web. Topics include the cultural and spiritual foundations of Indigenous-led movements, ways that Indigenous and Western sciences are being applied in tandem, and the creation of ocean policies rooted in Indigenous principles. Attendees will come away equipped with ways they can support these efforts as well as renewed inspiration to restore and repair Mother Earth. Moderated by Alexis Bunten (Yupu’ik/Unangan), Co-Director of the Bioneers Indigeneity Program. With: Shane Weeks (Shinnecock), co-founder and Director of Education and Research at the Metoac Indigenous Collective; Raynell Morris (Lummi), Events and Gatherings Producer, Children of the Setting Sun; and Louise Brady (Tlingit), founder and director of the Herring Protectors.
March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Berkeley Ballroom, Residence Inn
Panelists
Louise Brady
Founder and Director | Herring Protectors
Louise Brady (Kh’asheech Tláa), a citizen of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, previously served as the tribe’s Director of Social Services and Tribal Court Administrator. She is the founder and Director of the Herring Protectors, a grassroots movement led by Indigenous women that uses the original teachings of the Kiks.ádi women’s ceremony and collective organizing to stand up to legacies of colonization and genocide that have led to the devastation of the yaaw (herring). She also serves on the Advisory Board of Native Movement; has co-produced and directed two award-winning films; and was the recipient of a 2022 – 2023 NDN Changemaker Fellowship.
Shane Weeks
Co-Founder and Director of Research and Education | Metoac Indigenous Collective
Shane Weeks, a proud member of the Shinnecock Nation, located in Southampton, New York, represents his people in a number of capacities, as an author, traditional singer and dancer, cultural consultant, artist, and member of several local boards and committees. The owner of Ohke Creations, a candle and jewelry business, he is also co-founder and Director of Research and Education at the Metoac Indigenous Collective, an intertribal organization focused on cultural preservation, and was a recipient of a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. As an artist, Shane works in many different mediums and collaborates with Indigenous communities from around the world.
Raynell Morris
Events and Gatherings Producer | Children of the Setting Sun Productions
Raynell Morris, a Lhaq’temish matriarch and enrolled Lummi tribal member, is the Events and Gatherings Producer at Children of the Setting Sun Productions and a board member of the Friends of Toki. A former Vice-President of the Sacred Lands Conservancy and Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs under President Clinton, Raynell was the first Native American staffer appointed to the White House. She also served as Chief of Staff for the Chairman of the Lummi Nation, and, as Director of Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office, she was a key strategist in the successful campaign to block a proposal to build North America’s largest coal port terminal on Lhaq’temish (Lummi) sacred ground.
Alexis Bunten
Co-Director, Indigeneity Program | Bioneers
Alexis Bunten, Ph.D., (Aleut/Yup’ik), Co-Director of Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, has been a researcher, media-maker, manager, consultant, and curriculum developer for organizations including the Sealaska Heritage Institute, Alaska Native Heritage Center, and the FrameWorks Institute. She has published widely about Indigenous and environmental issues, and is the author of So, how long have you been Native?: Life as an Alaska Native Tour Guide.
Saturday, March 28th
Born of resistance, resilience, and ancestral strength, Indigenous women are rising, reclaiming leadership, re-aligning with nature, and challenging the imposed dysfunctions of colonial patriarchy. Jasmine Smith, 16, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee and founder and Chair of NAIWA Daughters, has lived this movement since birth, appearing before tribal and state legislatures all the way to the UN, embodying her refusal of the exclusion of Indigenous youth voices in the struggle for our collective future. She issues a bold call to restore Indigenous youth to their rightful place as valued leaders, knowledge-holders, and essential advocates for the living world.
March 28th | 10:50 am to 11:00 am | Zellerbach Hall
Jasmine Smith
Founder and Chair | NAIWA Daughters
Jasmine Smith, 16, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is an internationally recognized Indigenous youth leader, poet, and Founder and Chair of NAIWA Daughters, a youth-led nonprofit advancing Indigenous young women’s leadership, advocacy, and civic power. Jasmine has delivered keynote addresses at the Model United Nations Conference, working with Italian ambassadors, spoken before the Tennessee State Senate, working with Knox County representatives, and introduced the nation’s first all-female, second youth-led Rights of Nature resolution. A two-time Tennessee Civic Essay Award winner, she is a guest lecturer at the University of Tennessee, United World College in Costa Rica, and other academic institutions. Through her work, Jasmine bridges Indigenous knowledge, youth leadership, and environmental justice.
If we are to have a chance of reversing the destructive path our world is currently on and ushering in a genuinely nature-honoring era in which decisions will be made based on their effects seven generations in the future, we need to empower the extraordinary crop of young leaders, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, now emerging on the scene. Samantha Skenandore, of Ho-Chunk and Oneida ancestry, one of the nation’s leading practitioners of and experts in Federal Indian law and tribal law, will delve into the living legacies of her people’s guardianship of water, springs, trails, portals, and burial and sacred sites to illustrate the types of values we need to ground ourselves in, and describe some of her legal battles to highlight some of the types of struggles we must wage. But, above all, she will exhort us to do everything we can to support a new generation of change-makers that is combining the deep wisdom of ancestral TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge) with the best of contemporary science and technology to address our complex modern problems.
March 28th | 11:14 am to 11:36 am | Zellerbach Hall
Introduced by
Britt Gondolfi
Indigeneity Special Programs Coordinator | Bioneers
Britt Gondolfi, JD (Houma Descendant), a community organizer and mother, has worked with the Bioneers Indigeneity Program since 2017 as a facilitator for the Intercultural Conversation Program. She joined the Bioneers Rights of Nature initiative as an intern while in law school and subsequently as a Special Projects Coordinator to bring together tribal organizers, youth, and allies to advocate for the “Rights of Nature” in Indian Country. Britt, who recently ran for State Senate in Louisiana on a women’s rights platform, is the author of the children’s book, “Look Up! Fontaine the Pigeon Starts a Revolution.”
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.
