All Indigenous Ways of Relating Events

“Breaking Climate Behemoth: Report from Santa Marta,” a roundtable on the stakes for global climate diplomacy today. Bringing together three Red Natural History Fellows who were on the ground in Santa Marta, Colombia for the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in April, 2026, speakers discuss what happened behind closed doors—and what happened in the streets, unpacking not only the problems and controversies that flared up in Santa Marta, but also the openings, models for engagement, and new grounds for solidarity that were brought into view.

SPEAKERS

* Janene Yazzie (DinĂ©), Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and human rights advocate, longtime community organizer from the Navajo Nation, and Director of Global Programmes for The Woven Project

* Mohammed Usrof, Palestinian researcher, organiser, and Founder and Executive Director of the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy

* Joel Wainwright, Professor at Ohio State University and author of “The End: Marx, Darwin, and the Natural History of the Climate Crisis” (2025)

“The Data Center Frontier,” a roundtable on the environmental and social costs of the AI data center boom. Drawing lessons from Indigenous-led fights against pipelines, mining projects, and other forms of extractive infrastructure—as well as successful campaigns to block data centers—speakers share insights from the frontlines of the data center frontier and explore how movements across sites and issues can build durable solidarities in the face of a rapidly expanding digital-industrial regime.

SPEAKERS

* Jordan B. Kinder (MĂ©tis), Red Natural History Fellow and author of “Petroturfing: Refining Canadian Oil through Social Media” (2024)

* Krystal Two Bulls (Oglala Lakota/Northern Cheyenne), Executive Director of Honor the Earth, organizing at the intersection of Indigenous sovereignty, anti-militarism, and environmental justice

* Thea Riofrancos, scholar and author of “Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism” (2025)

* Vivek Bharathan, technologist and organizer with the No Desert Data Center Coalition in Arizona, and a Data Center Fellow with MediaJustice

In this lecture, DinĂ© geographer Andrew Curley and NHM Research Director Steve Lyons introduce the theory and practice of “red natural history,” asking how, as the combative antithesis to the imperialist tradition of natural history, “red natural history” can orient us to the ongoing resource wars on the Colorado River, arguably the most colonized river in North America—as well as the struggles playing out over its future.

This lecture was presented at Dutch artist Jonas Staal’s Climate Propagandas Congregation at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht on December 15, 2024.

Rosalyn LaPier (Blackfeet/MĂ©tis) is an environmental historian, traditional ecological knowledge practitioner, and one of The Natural History Museum’s inaugural Red Natural History Fellows. In this short video, Rosalyn argues that “red natural history” presents an opportunity for Indigenous people to define a practice of natural history that is aligned with their traditions of knowledge and relation to land.

Edited transcript of the full interview: https://bit.ly/RNH-red-is-sacred

“What Comes After the Wilderness Act,” a virtual roundtable exploring how we should understand the Wilderness Act on its 60th anniversary—a moment both of Indigenous resurgence and a rising far right. Bringing together historians, legal experts, and impacted community members, this roundtable explores a range of issues around the Wilderness Act, from the settler-colonial ideology undergirding its definition of “wilderness,” to the question of how this historic legislation might be revised or rewritten to serve the movement for land rematriation.

SPEAKERS

*Rosalyn LaPier (Blackfeet/MĂ©tis), Professor of History at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Red Natural History Fellow

*Heather Whiteman Runs Him (Apsaalooke/Crow), Director of the Tribal Justice Clinic and Associate Clinical Professor, University of Arizona Rogers College of Law

*Christen Falcon (Amskapi Piikani/Blackfeet), Blackfeet gatherer/hunter, Traditional Diet/Land Tenure Research Coordinator for Piikani Lodge Health Institute, and co-owner of Backpacker’s Ferry

*Karl Jacoby, Allan Nevins Professor of American History at Columbia University

******

Held on September 25, 2024, this event was organized by Rosalyn LaPier as part of Natural History for a World in Crisis, a programming series organized by the 2023-2025 cohort of Red Natural History Fellows with The Natural History Museum. Made possible with support from the Henry Luce Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundations and 4Culture.