Natali Segovia, Quechua
Executive Director, director@waterprotectorlegal.org
Natali Segovia is a Quechua international human rights attorney who currently serves as Executive Director of the Water Protector Legal Collective, an Indigenous-led legal organization that grew out of the #NoDAPL resistance at Standing Rock and today, continues to provide legal support and advocacy for Indigenous Peoples, the Earth, and climate justice movements. As a litigator and advocate, Natali’s work focuses on the protection of the Earth and the rights of Indigenous Peoples affected by forced displacement, desecration of sacred lands, and human rights violations as a result of extractive industry and mass development projects. For over 15 years, her international work has focused on addressing human rights violations as a result of extractive industry and mass development projects in rural, “unseen” areas in countries including Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. Natali also frequently lectures and teaches at law schools across the United States. In 2022, Natali was the Fall Givelber Distinguished Public Interest Lecturer at Northeastern University School of Law, where she taught “In Defense of the Sacred: Human Rights, Earth Justice, and the Law.” Courses also taught include “Indigenous Peoples and Colonial Law” and “Unsettled: Indigenous Peoples' Struggles for Defense of Water, Land & Human Rights” at City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law. Natali holds a law degree from Arizona State University and dual degrees in Political Science and Latin American Studies from Columbia University. She currently serves on the Scientific Committee of the Monique and Roland Weyl People’s Academy of International Law and on the Board of Directors for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights International.
Summer Aubrey, Cherokee/Blackfeet
Staff Attorney
Summer Blaze Aubrey is a Citizen of the Cherokee Nation and a Descendant of the Blackfeet Nation. A staff attorney at the Water Protector Legal Collective, she holds a law degree and an LL.M degree from the University of Arizona College of Law, with certificates in Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy. Summer is a recipient of the Robert A. Hershey IPLP Outstanding Tribal Advocate Award and the UofA Junius Hoffman “Beyond The JD” Award for her academic achievements and contributions to the law school.
Summer was the first legal intern at the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) and served as Senior Note Editor in the Arizona Journal of Law and Environmental Policy (AJELP). Summer served as Staff Attorney for Human Rights at IITC, where she worked on Treaty rights and co-authored IITC’s 2022 shadow report to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s (CERD), representing the organization in Geneva, Switzerland. While at IITC, Summer also contributed to the WPLC shadow report to the CERD on private military and security actors and human rights abuses during #NoDAPL protests.
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Summer ’s law article "Violence Against the Earth Begets Violence Against Women" (2019), was cited in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Climate Change April 2022 report. While pursuing her LL.M, Summer worked closely with former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Francisco Cali Tzay. Currently, her work at WPLC draws heavily from her expertise in international law in addition to selected environmental and civil litigation including WPLC’s Non-Party Motion to Intervene in the Energy Transfer v. Greenpeace SLAPP suit in North Dakota.
Summer is licensed in Arizona, admitted pro hac vice in North Dakota and admitted in the U.S. District Court of Colorado. She is active in the Federal Bar Association’s International Law Section and the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources where she is a 2024 Diversity Enhancement Program recipient.
Nizhoni Begay, Diné/Quechua
Communications and Development Coordinator
Nizhoni Begay is the Communications and Development Coordinator at the Water Protector Legal Collective. Alongside her work at WPLC, she is co-editor on the To-Be-Named Graphic Anthology by Red Planet Books & Comics featuring Water Protectors. Nizhoni graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Political Science and minors in Music and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Her previous experience includes doing research at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, cultivating community at Stanford’s Native American Cultural Center as president of Diné Club, and staffing at Stanford’s Native American themed residence, Muwekma-Tah-Ruk. Nizhoni has ties to several organizations internationally who she works with from time to time. These include Ayudando Latinos A Soñar in Half Moon Bay, Students for Workers’ Rights, and the Justice 4 Black Lives Fund in collaboration with Stanford Alpha Kappa Alpha. In 2020, Nizhoni was awarded the Award of Excellence, an award designed to recognize the top 10% of the class who have demonstrated a sincere commitment through involvement and leadership, from the Stanford Alumni Association.
Elana Atsa Begay, Diné/Yanktonai Dakota
WPLC Legal Researcher
Elana Begay is a member of the Navajo Nation and is also from the Fort Peck Montana Reservation. She holds a Master’s degree in Sociology, along with a B.A.H. in Sociology and a B.A. in Native American Studies from Stanford University. Her passion for legal research began during her work with Chief Justice Emeritus Robert Yazzie, where she studied Navajo Peacemaking. Over the past year, Elana has continued her research into Indigenous Peacemaking systems, serving as a Teaching Assistant for an Indigenous Peacemaking class and conducting extensive research on their revival and implementation.
Elana is returning to the Water Protector Legal Collective (WPLC) as a legal researcher, continuing her work with the organization, where she previously served as a fellow through Stanford’s Indigenous Communities Fellowship. During her time as a fellow, Elana worked closely with staff attorneys and the communications team, further honing her legal skills while contributing to WPLC’s mission of supporting Indigenous rights and climate justice.
Her work is guided by a deep commitment to integrating traditional Indigenous justice methods into modern legal systems. Looking ahead, Elana aims to work alongside Native communities to support the revitalization of their traditional justice systems, helping to ensure these practices are recognized and implemented in ways that strengthen Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.
Kyra Blas, CHamoru
Yale Bernstein Fellow
Kyra Blas is a CHamoru woman born and raised on the island of Guåhan (Guam). A recent graduate of Yale Law School, Blas is joining the WPLC team as a 2023-2024 Robert L. Bernstein International Human Rights Fellow. During this fellowship, Blas and WPLC will work together to document the U.S. military’s adverse impacts on waters and surrounding communities throughout Turtle Island, occupied Hawai'i, and the U.S. colonies (unincorporated territories). Having experienced these harms first-hand, Blas is deeply grateful to work with WPLC to execute this project and meaningfully contribute to grassroots movements and the protection of our peoples, waters, non-human neighbors, and generations to come.
Delfina Roybal, Diné
Communications Intern
Delfina Roybal was born and raised in Lenapehoking territory aka New York City and is currently working on a degree in history and pre-law at Borough of Manhattan Community College. She has strong ties to the urban Indigenous community in the city and she is working locally with Redhawk Nation as their social media coordinator and alongside local Indigenous organizations for upcoming Indigenous Peoples Day 2022. She has also worked outside of the city with Seeding Sovereignty on virtual voting campaigns to get out the vote in Indian Country. Currently, Delfina works at WPLC as a communications intern and also does communications at Urban Indigenous Collective in NYC. Most recently, Delfina was accepted to Columbia University.
Why an Indigenous Board? We are Indigenizing the law.
Representation matters. Less than 1% of lawyers in the United States are Native American.
WPLC was originally founded by Indigenous women but grew quickly with the presence of many non-Indigenous allies and volunteers. We are grateful for those efforts. As we look ahead into the future, WPLC understands that as Indigenous Peoples, our presence within the colonial legal systems allow us to bring to the law the values and understandings of our ancestors and lifeways. While allies will always be needed, we unapologetically envision a future where Indigenous Peoples are represented by Indigenous and BIPOC, in a way that is trauma-informed, culturally safe, and relational, beyond traditional lawyering.
Our relatives that serve on the board of WPLC include attorneys, activists, educators, and community organizers that have a long history of movement work. Their commitment to Indigenous Decolonization requires a breaking apart of structures that were created with real and intended violence. While we view our legal work as a way of unthreading the knots in the social construct and tapestry of the law, we also see WPLC in a pivotal role of Indigenizing the law. In our use of language we choose to center not just what we are fighting against – colonization – but what we are fighting for – the next seven generations.
Mia Montoya Hammersley,
Piro-Manso-Tiwa/Yoeme
Board Co-Chair
Mia Montoya Hammersley is the Director of the Environmental Justice Clinic and an Assistant Professor of Law at the Vermont Law & Graduate School. She is a member of the Piro-Manso-Tiwa Indian Tribe, Pueblo of San Juan de Guadalupe, and a Yoeme (Yaqui) descendant. In her work, Mia has represented conservation organizations in protecting land from extractive industries, Tribes in defending and asserting their land and water rights, and communities experiencing disproportionate environmental health harms. In addition to completing her J.D. with dual certificates in Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy and Environmental Law, Science, and Policy, Mia holds a Master of Science in Water Policy from the University of Arizona. Her chapter, "The Water-Energy Nexus and Environmental Justice: the Missing Link Between Water Rights and Energy Production on Tribal Lands" was published in the UA Press Series, Indigenous Environmental Justice, in 2020. In 2021, she was a recipient of the Young, Gifted, and Green 40 Under 40 Award by Black Millennials for Flint for her work in the field of environmental justice.
Carolina Martin Ramos, Mexica/Cherokee
Board Co-Chair
Carolina Martin Ramos is a human rights attorney with experience working in the trenches, shoulder-to-shoulder with community members. Carolina is Mexica/Cherokee descent, two-spirit woman. Carolina is recognized as a fierce advocate and guerrera for land defenders and water protectors. Carolina is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Water Protector Legal Collective (WPLC) and Executive Director of Justicia Digna where she focuses on human rights, environmental justice, and international Indigenous people’s rights. Carolina advocates before local, state, federal, and international bodies including the United Nations on environmental justice issues such as green colonialism. Carolina’s work is inherently liberatory, transformational, cross-jurisdictional, cross border, decolonizing, and anti-colonial. Carolina believes that “otro mundo es possible” and works on developing cultures of belonging. As an attorney, Carolina has responded to multiple legal and humanitarian crises related to gender violence and forced displacement, including responding to the family separations under Zero Tolerance Policies in the border region. She worked with teams of attorneys on federal litigation suing the federal government for human rights and civil rights violations including Matter of Ms. L and the Aleman-Gonzalez case challenging prolonged detention. Carolina is a true movement attorney and has volunteered at the Red Owl Legal Collective, now Water Protector Legal Collective (aka Legal Tent), at Oceti Sakowin, Standing Rock Sioux Nation, worked with asylum seekers at the U.S. – Mexico border region during “the surge” in 2014 and many subsequent events where caravans of asylum seekers faced human rights violations, family separations, and refoulement under Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). She is widely recognized for her work with Maya and Indigenous migrants, survivors of human trafficking, and asylum seekers fleeing gender violence, and TSLGBTQ communities.
Monaeka Flores, CHamoru
Board Co-Treasurer
Monaeka “Naek” Flores is a queer CHamoru artist and activist from Guåhan (Guam). Naek is the lead organizer of Prutehi Litekyan: Save Ritidian, a direct action group dedicated to the protection of natural and cultural resources in all sites identified for DOD live-fire firing training on Guam. Naek is also a core member of Mariånas for Palestine and Independent Guåhan.
Emily Uruchima, Kichwa Kañari
Board Co-Treasurer
Emily Uruchima is a Kichwa Kañari archivist, researcher, and storyteller born and raised on Lenapehoking territory (New York City). Emily received her M.A. in Latin American and Caribbean Studies (2020) and a B.A. in Social and Cultural Analysis with focus on Native American and Indigenous Studies (2021), both from New York University. Throughout her time at NYU, Emily worked as a Special Collections Assistant, archiving and digitizing the Native and Indigenous Media Collection, while bridging connections and facilitating collaborations between Indigenous elders and storytellers across Turtle Island. Since 2015, Emily Uruchima has been organizing with Kichwa youth across Turtle Island working in language revitalization, climate change efforts, and moving image archiving and preservation work. Much of Emily’s research and work revolves around uplifting Indigenous communities, historically silenced in large public institutions. Currently, at the New York Public Library, she works directly with digital archives and holdings to develop curricula for NYC public school educators. Through an indigenous historical lens, Emily has been developing curricula with topics/themes ranging from the realities and traumas of Native American Residential Boarding Schools to findings and interpretations of 19th Century treaties with Indigenous nations across Turtle Island/Abya Yala.
Sandra Creamer, Waanyi/Kalkadoon
Board Secretary
Sandra is a Waanyi/Kalkadoon Indigenous woman from Australia. She is the CEO of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance, Lawyer and Adjunct Professor in Public Health at the University of Queensland. She was awarded a Member of the Order Of Australia (AM) award on the Queens Birthday 2019 by the Attorney General of Australia for her work with Indigenous women and peoples.
Sandra is an advisor for the Seventh Generation Board Fund, on the Board of the International Indigenous Women’s Forum and on the Advisory team for the Queensland Human Rights Commissioner.
Sandra advocates on human rights for Indigenous women and peoples. Some of her work has been: lecturing, writing submissions, writing articles, writing programs, Short film clips, as well as workshop in providing information on how to film and advocate your rights and violations with WITNESS Human Rights.
Sandra has been involved with the international arena for many years and in particular working with Indigenous women globally. Sandra has attended the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous peoples and was the co-chair for the Global Indigenous Women’s Caucus.
Ozawa Bineshi Albert, Yuchi/Annishinaabe
At-Large Board Member
Bineshi Albert grew up in the movement and remembers her family organizing for community and Indigenous Rights throughout her upbringing. Her work over the last 30 years has primarily focused on environmental justice and Native/Indigenous rights. She has also been part of many pivotal movement building and multicultural spaces throughout her career. She is Co-Executive Director at Climate Justice Alliance. She was a founding board member of Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), served on their three person Leadership Team alongside the Executive Director and was their Movement Building Coordinator and Co-Coordinator for Indigenous Feminisms. She is proud to have contributed to the work of It Takes Roots, the Rising Majority and international movement spaces. While at IEN, Bineshi supported the creation and development of both an Indigenous Feminist Organizing School and an International Feminist Organizing School. Before that, she held many positions including the Interim Co-Director at SAGE Council, one of the founders of the Native American Voters Alliance; Regional Director (West) for the Center for Community Change, Co-Director of the SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP), and she served as a lobbyist for a number of initiatives including Strong Families in New Mexico. Bineshi began her organizing work with the Coalition for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Native Lands’ Toxics Campaign at Greenpeace. She holds a degree in Indigenous Liberal Studies from the Institute of American Indian Art with minors in Performing Arts and Creative Writing. She is the proud mother of three: a daughter and two sons, and recently became a grandmother. She makes her home in relocated Yuchi & Muscogee territory in Oklahoma, also known as Tulsa.