The Water Protector Legal Collective is an Indigenous-led nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that works to protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Original Nations, the Earth, and climate justice movements.
Our Indigenous-led organization is uniquely positioned to provide legal support and advocacy for Indigenous Peoples with a critical understanding of what it means to be Indigenous and live in relation with the Earth. We are working to change the social tapestry of the law. We work to provide Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities with legal representation and advocacy in a way that is trauma-informed, culturally safe, and relational, beyond traditional lawyering.
A Legal Holding Line for Indigenous Peoples and the Earth.
Born out of the #NoDAPL movement, WPLC’s founding mission was to serve as the on-the-ground legal team for the Indigenous-led resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) at Standing Rock where we provided legal support for Water Protectors in over 800+ criminal defense cases in North Dakota.
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Today, we continue in the frontline legal battles to honor the Earth and protect the Sacred, through impact litigation and defense, ongoing, long-term accompaniment and legal advocacy, community legal education, and use of international human rights mechanisms. The work we do is not just a fight against colonialism, but a fight for the protection of the next seven generations.
According to the American Bar Association, less than one-half of 1 percent of all lawyers (0.4%) are Native American, while the U.S. population is 1.3% Native American.
Representation matters. The law was not built to protect Indigenous Peoples or the Earth - any tenuous protections have been hard-won over decades of struggle. The law was also not built to include Indigenous or BPOC lawyers. As a space that still today reflects structural inequalities, we understand our obligation to bring to the law the values and understandings of our ancestors and lifeways. Still, our work was born out of a prayer on ceremonial grounds to protect the Water, not only for Indigenous Peoples and Nations, but for all. This is the mantle we carry.
