What might happen if Tribal Nations across the U.S enacted laws and constitutions that codify their traditional knowledge, honor the rights of nature, and affirm their right to protect and advocate for their ancestral homelands? It could be a game-changer, reversing the legal paradigm from nature as property to nature as rights-bearing.
Rights of Nature governance is now a global movement spreading across Indian Country to protect our lands and natural resources for generations to come by recognizing nature with legal standing and rights. The philosophy is rooted in Indigenous knowledge that nature has a right to exist, thrive and evolve, and that, as human beings, we have a responsibility to act as guardians and “good relatives.”
Email us for a printed copy! RightsofNature@bioneers.org
Native Youth Ambassador Program
Youth are activated to engage in paradigm-shifting legal movements because they will inherit the catastrophic failures of our current system. As a result, we’ve refocused our core IRoN strategy to center, engage and support Indigenous Youth on the frontlines. Each Ambassador’s cohort receives grants, travel support, and educational and organizing resources to advance Rights of Nature initiatives in their own communities.
History of the Program
Mashpee Wampanoag Youth and the Rise of a Rights of Nature Movement
In 2023, Bioneers invited nine Mashpee Wampanoag youth to a Rights of Nature (RoN) “Herring Camp” in Sitka, Alaska, where a Tribally led effort to protect Pacific herring has long been underway. Bioneers also offered Mashpee youth an honorarium to host community events — a pilot of our Native Youth Ambassadors Program. In response, the youth formed the Native Environmental Ambassadors (NEA). Their mission: to advocate for their ancestral lands and waters and protect Atlantic herring, a critically endangered keystone species along the Eastern Seaboard.
During their time on the land and water in Sitka, youth participated in workshops where they drafted a groundbreaking emergency declaration affirming the Rights of the Herring to exist, persist, and thrive, as well as the Tribe’s inherent right to protect its ecosystems. One month later, they brought the resolution to their Tribal Council, where it passed unanimously.
Since then, this youth-led initiative has organized river cleanups, paddles, and educational days at their Tribal headquarters. They have spoken across the U.S., including at Bioneers Conferences, and have emerged as some of the most inspiring youth organizers advancing Rights of Nature and community-driven environmental protection.
In August 2025, with support from Bioneers, the NEA coordinated an Intertribal Rights of Nature Symposium in Mashpee, Massachusetts. It was a landmark gathering that drew elders, youth, and RoN leaders. Prominent Indigenous environmental advocates—including Frank Bibeau, Sammy Gensaw, and Casey Camp-Horinek — presented on food sovereignty, land stewardship, ecological restoration, and other critical issues.
A central aim was to inspire other youth to “Indigenize the Law.” Since the 2023 pilot, 13 youth groups representing 21 Tribes have formed a growing coalition to defend ecosystems coast-to-coast, guided by the Bioneers Indigenous Rights of Nature team. As NEA member Ciara Oakley-Robbins shared:
“I hope they take home the idea that we’re making a change, that we can do this… that we can impact future generations, not let our water get sick, not let our marine, plant, and bird relatives become extinct.”
This movement represents a long-term, youth-led strategy to carry Rights of Nature deeper into the heart of Indian Country. Legal paradigms don’t shift overnight, and the capitalist framework that defines nature as property won’t loosen its grip without sustained, collective effort. The Native Youth Ambassador Program exists to provide Indigenous youth with resources, transformative experiences, and a powerful network of allies — because with visionary support and catalytic funding, youth can rewrite both the future and the law itself.
Guide to Rights of Nature in Indian Country
We created a Guide to understanding and organizing the Rights of Nature in Indian Country as an educational resource for anyone interested in bringing this movement home.
As a coalition of Native and Native-descended authors, we wrote this guide by and for American Indian/Alaska Native community members who are interested in learning about how the Rights of Nature can bring Tribal values into contemporary law.
Email us for a printed copy! RightsofNature@bioneers.org
If you are interested in bringing this movement to your community, we would be happy to brainstorm with you.
Behind everything is a story.
Here is the story of how Bioneers developed the Rights of Nature in Indian Country Project
There is strength in numbers.
Here are other organizations working to advance Nature’s legal state and Honor Mother Earth’s right to exist