Indian lands across the country are being encroached on by pipelines, fracking, data centers and other industries.
In Virginia, the Rappahannock Tribe joined a handful of Tribal Nations in the U.S. that are recognizing the constitutional rights of nature. Now, they’re ready to defend that right for their river.
Rappahannock Chief Anne Richardson is concerned about large water withdrawals from the Rappahannock River as her Tribe works to restore traditional foods like river herring and oysters, as well as to preserve habitat in the water and along Fones Cliffs. But King George County just approved a 485-acre data center near Fredericksburg.
"We've got one straw in now. And then all of these other straws all the way up want to do this. And we can't let that happen," Richardson said. "And so the rights of the river and the rights of nature was one of those tools in the bag of sovereignty that we now possess."
Declaring the river a legal entity means it can defend itself in a court of law and any lawsuits would first go before a tribal court.
This is relatively new territory.
Frank Bibeau is an enrolled citizen of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and a tribal attorney. He spoke at the recent Sovereignty Conference in Richmond about defending and winning the rights of wild rice or Manoomin on and off his Tribe’s reservation, protecting it from the impacts of pipeline construction and other threats.
He sees parallels with the Rappahannock.
"I would look at the rights of the blueback herring. I would look at the rights of the sturgeon because those are important indicator species. And they're important spiritually to the people," Biebeau said afterward. "They keep the environment intact for everyone in perpetuity."
Besides data centers, Chief Richardson is watching a proposed water intake facility in Caroline County that could withdraw 9 million gallons of water per day and eventually return it to a tributary of the Mattaponi River.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.