Tara Houska

Tara Houska Zhaabowekwe (Couchiching First Nation) is a tribal attorney, land defender and climate justice activist.

Tara Houska
Zhaabowekwe
Tara Houska smiling and looking directly at the camera, standing in snow covered woods
Tara Houska in 2017
Born
International Falls, Minnesota
Organization(s)Not Your Mascot
Giniw Collective
Known forEnvironmental activism, indigenous activism

Activism

Not Your Mascots

Houska co-founded Not Your Mascots, an organization and social media campaign that educates the public about stereotyping and representation of Native Americans, including work on getting Washington, D.C.'s football team to change its name.[1][2]

Pipeline protests
See also: Stop Line 3 protests

Houska founded and runs the Giniw Collective.[3][4] She and others from the collective fought for seven years against construction of the Line 3 pipeline, an oil pipeline running from Alberta to Wisconsin. Three of those years she spent living in a tent on the pipeline's route, including during harsh winters. The area's tribal nations maintain the treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather on land along the pipeline, which crosses many bodies of water. Tribal nations also grow wild rice there, which has cultural and historic importance. The Giniw Collective often uses their bodies to stop or slow construction as a form of protest, including crawling inside the pipeline, squatting in trees, and tying themselves to machines. Houska has also engaged politicians directly, including meetings with the Biden administration to push for the federal government to intervene and suspend the project's permit.[3] Minnesota Now called her "one of the leaders in the movement to stop the construction of new pipelines".[4]

Houska also fought against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and lived in the Standing Rock encampment for six months.[5]

Other work

Houska is involved in other climate and social justice efforts, having published essays in All We Can Save, Vogue, the New York Times, and CNN. She is also a contributing writer for the Indian Country Media Network.[5][6] She was the campaign director for Honor the Earth from 2016 to 2019.[7]

Houska is a former adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders as his campaign Native American advisor.[3] During his 2016 presidential campaign, she was the lead author of his Native policy platform.[5]

Melinda Gates awarded Houska the Good Housekeeping 2017 Awesome Women award.[5]

In 2021, Houska spoke at the 33rd European Green Party Council on climate change and biodiversity.[8][9]

Personal life

Houska was born in International Falls, Minnesota.[10]

References
  1. Klemko, Robert (31 December 2014). "Redskins: Right or Wrong?". Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  2. "Tara Houska on Racist Mascots, Fighting Pipelines, and Being the Only Native Person in the Room". Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  3. Partlow, Joshua (June 8, 2021). "Pipeline protesters seize Minnesota construction site in bid to stop $4 billion project". Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 10, 2021. Retrieved June 13, 2021.
  4. "A leader in the fight against oil pipelines reflects on lessons learned". MPR News. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
  5. Cordova, Lynn. "Water Protector, Tara Houska, Bestowed Good Housekeeping's Awesome Women of 2017 Award". Indian Country Today. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
  6. Houska, Tara. ""My Culture is Not Super Bowl Entertainment"". New York Times.
  7. Cragoe, Nicholas G. (Fall 2017). "Following the Green Path: Honor the Earth and Presentations of Anishinaabe Indigeneity". Wíčazo Ša Review. 32 (2): 46–69. doi:10.5749/wicazosareview.32.2.0046. JSTOR 10.5749/wicazosareview.32.2.0046. S2CID 165266094. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  8. "Activists Elizabeth Wathuti, Tara Houska, Adélaïde Charlier and Nyke Slawik to speak on climate and biodiversity at the Council". European Greens. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  9. "33rd Council of the European Green Party". European Greens. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  10. Houska, Tara. "Transcript of "The Standing Rock resistance and our fight for Indigenous rights"". TED. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
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