In 2012, the Chevron Refinery in Richmond, California due to negligence, caused a massive explosion that erupted into flames, sending columns of black smoke stretching across multiple cities. Over 15,000 people were sent to the only hospital in Richmond to address their respiratory ailments, nausea and headaches due to the exposure of the toxins in the air. It was not the first, or the last time that this refinery would hurt people and the planet.
This became the inspiration for Isabella Zizi, then a teenager, to take action as a young, Indigenous climate defender and a water protector. Since then, she has followed her guidance to ensure a safe, viable and healthy future for the next seven generations. She has organized and participated in hundreds of non-violent direct actions, responding to dozens of calls to action requests from Indigenous communities across Turtle Island from the destruction of oil & gas infrastructures. Through it all, Isabella has maintained her love and dedication to Mother Earth which eventually brought her to Movement RIghts as our Indigenous Community Organizer lifting up the Rights of Nature.
Isabella is not alone, Indigenous Youth are Rising Up for the Rights of Nature
“Intertribal Emerging Leaders understand that our Indigenous values and responsibilities to honor and recognize Mother Earth as she guides us to inherently exist, regenerate and flourish for the next seven generations. This understanding is in direct correlation with the Rights of Nature movement.” – Isabella Zizi, Indigenous Community Organizer
In 2023, Movement Rights co-founders, board members and Isabella Zizi traveled to Mashpee Wampanoag territory on Cape Cod to meet youth who were working to protect the herring using Rights of Nature. We were so inspired by their work, but they didn’t even know they were part of inspiring a global movement. So we began to work with them to support their vision and share their work with Rights of Nature and climate justice leaders everywhere.
“I believe that rights of nature could help all communities in the way that it allows cultural teachings to continue on because all these things in our environment that get affected by Rights of Nature are crucial to our teachings like the fish,the trees and every being that has lived on this Earth longer than us.” – Isaiah Peters Mashpee Wampanoag tribal youth
In September 2024 during the 3rd Convening of the 4 Winds in Mvskoke Nation territory Oklahoma, what started out as a small youth break out session, quickly became monthly engagements with Indigenous Emerging Leaders. Isabella Zizi has been engaging with well over 30 Indigenous emerging leaders across Turtle Island on a monthly basis.
This special work is possible only through a giant web of connections, a community that spans the entire earth and includes people doing what they can, where they can, when they can. If you are able, please make a donation today to support Movement Rights and Indigenous Emerging Leaders.
Movement Rights is highlighting and supporting Indigenous Emerging leaders across Turtle Island:
Yulevis Morales Blanco, now age 24, helped lead a grassroots movement to stop commercial fracking from ever harming her community. Working with Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities in Puerto Wilches, she co-founded youth-led organizing efforts to defend water, territory, and life itself, challenging powerful fossil fuel interests and elevating the right of communities to free, prior, and informed consent. For her efforts, she was recently awarded the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize. Read more about her work here. As part of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, Yuvelis has been a judge at two tribunals, including recently in Colombia, with Movement Rights during the 1st Fossil Fuel Phase out conference.
As mentioned above, founded in 2023, Mashpee Native Environmental Ambassadors (NEA) took to their tribal council a Declaration of State of Emergency for the health and well-being of the herring. With the herring being overfished, forcibly rerouted due to shipping traffic and the Mashpee having traditional ecological ties to the herring, it was an automatic approval. Over the past three years, NEA has organized a series of events for Mashpee Wampanoag youth including cultural gatherings around the water, herring and educational opportunities around ongoing legislation. Movement Rights has supported their travel to key national events including RIghts of Nature Tribunals, Convenings, and Climate Week activities, as well as providing support and guidance as they held their own Rights of Nature Symposium in Mashpee, and much more.
In January 2026, the NAIWA Daughters of the Eastern Band of Cherokee became the first all young women’s Indigenous group in North America to present their Rights of Longperson Resolution to their tribal council which was unanimously passed. They are currently working on creating a Rights of Nature Task Force to address implementation, public education, and restoration recommendations.
“The Eastern Band of Cherokee have the responsibility to care for our waterways so that other Tribal Nations and all living beings downstream can enjoy clean, healthy water. The care we show our waters directly affects the health and welfare of those who live along Longperson’s path to the ocean.” – Excerpt from Rights of Longperson Resolution
What we do for Emerging Leaders:
- Monthly Emerging Leaders for the Rights of Nature meetings
- Draft legislation
- Prepare them to present to Tribal Council including small group training with elders
- Media and social media training
- Skill building across Indigenous communities
- In-person Emerging Leaders trainings and events
- Practical on the ground support with what they need
- Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature National and International organizational support
Here’s what your support can do:
- Support their involvement in the upcoming Summer online course
- Support intergenerational activities where Indigenous elders and youth converge
- Support travel costs for their involvement to the upcoming Intertribal Rights of Rivers gathering – Fall 2026
- One on one or group training
We are so inspired by youth leadership in the Rights of Nature. Through their commitment to their ancestral teachings and their fresh ideas and energy they are the future of this movement. Movement RIghts is proud to stand with Emerging Leaders. Please, make a donation today.
