Tom Goldtooth

Tom Goldtooth is an indigenous American environmental- and climate justice activist, speaker, filmmaker and leading indigenous rights campaigner. He is currently the Executive Director of the North American-based ‚Indigenous Environmental Network‘ – a coalition of indigenous activists*.

Goldtooth has been recognized for his accomplishments over the past 40 years as a pioneer for change in the environmental, economic, energy and climate justice movements. Through the power of his community organizing and leadership, he brought local indigenous rights issues related to land, water, air, and health environmental protection to the national and international levels.

From his participation and leadership at the 1991 First National People of Color Environmental Justice Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., to the 2010 World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (Spanish: Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra) in Cochabamba, Bolivia, he has been at the forefront of key moments in the struggle for systemic change. In 2007, Tom co-founded the Indigenous World Forum for Water and Peace, which emphasizes spiritual-cultural values and ethics in water governance.

He also initiated the first International Indigenous Conference on the Rights of Mother Earth in 2012 at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, and has been a member of the ‚Global Alliance of the Rights of Nature‘ since its inception. In 2017, he served as President of the International Tribunal of the Rights of Nature in Bonn, Germany.

Tom Goldtooth has received numerous awards, including the Gandhi Award in 2015 and the conservation organization ‚Sierra Club’s‘ highest honor, the John Muir Award, in 2016.