<
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/cherokee-girls-win-legal-rights-for-waterway-in-first-all-female-u-s-effort/>
"Before the proceedings began, the young women carried Longperson into the room
with them, water gathered from the mountain headwaters and held in traditional
pottery. The chamber filled beyond capacity, supporters spilling into the
lobby. When the vote came, the council passed the resolution unanimously. The
crowd and the council rose in standing ovation.
On Jan. 8, 2026, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) Tribal Council
convened in Cherokee, in what is today the U.S. state of North Carolina, to
consider a resolution brought forward by the NAIWA Daughters, the youth arm of
the North American Indian Women’s Association, made up of a group of Indigenous
girls between the ages of 10 and 17.
The resolution recognizes the inherent legal rights of the Longperson, or
vwi
Ganvhida, the interconnected waterway system whose headwaters rise in the
Great Smoky Mountains and travel more than 1,270 kilometers (790 miles),
branching through multiple states before its “feet,” as the Cherokee describe
it, reach the Gulf of Mexico.
To the Tribe, Longperson (formerly Long Man) is a living entity of great
cultural and spiritual significance.
“The room was heavy with the presence of Ancestors and community alike,” said
Jasmine Smith, NAIWA Daughters chair and co-founder, describing the moment in a
keynote speech at the Bioneers Conference in Berkeley, California. She
delivered her speech wearing the moccasins of her Ancestor Ruth Littlejohn.
“That day crystallized in my memories,” she said. “The honor to bring
Longperson into the chamber to speak for it, beside it.”
This marks the first all-female-led rights-of-nature effort in the U.S.,
according to the Earth Law Center, and only the second youth-led
rights-of-nature resolution passed by a tribal nation.
“We look to [Longperson] for a lot of strength,” Juanita Wilson, an enrolled
EBCI member who has led the Tribe’s annual Honoring Longperson cleanup efforts
since 2021 but was not involved with the resolution, told Mongabay. “There are
a number of rituals that people do for medicine, physical and emotional
health.”
“Whatever’s on land is going to end up in the water,” Wilson added. “It’s
literally the lifeblood of everything.”
After the vote, the NAIWA Daughters returned the vessel of water to the
Oconaluftee River in a water ceremony."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
