Honor the Earth

Honor the Earth is a United States-based nonprofit organization dedicated to Indigenous environmental justice and the protection of Indigenous lifeways, lands, cultures, and political sovereignty. Its work combines public advocacy, movement building, fundraising, communications, and support for grassroots organizers. Rather than operating as a conventional consumer brand, Honor the Earth functions as an advocacy and organizing platform whose public identity is associated with campaigns against environmentally destructive development and with efforts to strengthen Indigenous-led responses to climate change and social inequality. The organization was founded in Minnesota in 1993 by musicians Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls after they met Indigenous activist Winona LaDuke. Its creation followed consultations with members of the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Indigenous Women's Network, and the Seventh Generation Fund. The founding model connected cultural visibility, environmental campaigning, and direct support for Indigenous communities. The organization subsequently became associated with opposition to fossil-fuel infrastructure and other projects viewed as threats to Indigenous lands, water, treaty rights, and self-determination. Honor the Earth frames environmental protection within a broader critique of settler colonialism, racial capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism. Its stated approach emphasizes helping communities resist exploitation, withstand social and environmental crises, and prepare future generations of Indigenous leadership. This places the organization within the wider Indigenous rights, environmental justice, climate justice, and anti-extractive movements rather than within the conventional conservation sector alone. The organization was active in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, in which Indigenous and allied organizers challenged the pipeline's route and its potential effects on water, treaty rights, and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. It has also supported the Land Back movement, which seeks the restoration of Indigenous control and sovereignty over ancestral homelands, and the No Green Colonialism campaign, which challenges environmental or climate projects that reproduce resource extraction, land dispossession, or displacement under a sustainability-oriented label. Honor the Earth underwent a significant organizational restructuring after a former contract employee brought a sexual-harassment-related lawsuit. On March 30, 2023, Becker County District Court ordered the organization to pay $750,000 in damages. Following the litigation, the organization severed its ties with Winona LaDuke and appointed a board composed entirely of Indigenous women. Krystal Two Bulls became executive director and is identified as the organization's current leader in the available reference material. The lawsuit and subsequent restructuring represent a major institutional turning point, although the organization's environmental-justice and Indigenous-sovereignty mission continues.

Honor the Earth was established in Minnesota in 1993 by Indigo Girls members Amy Ray and Emily Saliers after their meeting with Winona LaDuke. The organization was developed through consultation with the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Indigenous Women's Network, and the Seventh Generation Fund. From its beginning, it connected environmental advocacy with Indigenous cultural survival, political sovereignty, and community-based organizing. Its institutional identity differs from that of a conventional conservation charity. Honor the Earth treats environmental harm as inseparable from colonial dispossession, racial inequality, economic exploitation, and the weakening of Indigenous authority over land and resources. Its stated mission is to protect Indigenous lifeways and sovereignty while helping communities oppose exploitation, manage crises, and build future generations of leadership. Over time, Honor the Earth became involved in campaigns concerning extractive industries, fossil-fuel infrastructure, and climate policy. It supported Indigenous and allied resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline, a campaign centered on threats to water, treaty rights, cultural sites, and the sovereignty of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The organization also promoted Land Back, a movement focused on restoring Indigenous control over ancestral lands, and No Green Colonialism, which criticizes supposedly green development when it continues patterns of extraction, land grabbing, or displacement. The organization's public and institutional trajectory changed sharply in 2023. On March 30 of that year, Becker County District Court ordered Honor the Earth to pay $750,000 in damages in litigation brought by a former contract employee following an accusation of sexual harassment in 2015. The case became a major organizational crisis. In its aftermath, Honor the Earth carried out an overhaul that included ending its relationship with Winona LaDuke, creating a board made entirely of Indigenous women, and appointing Krystal Two Bulls as executive director. These changes reshaped the organization's governance while leaving its publicly described focus on Indigenous environmental justice and sovereignty in place.

1. 2023Court judgment and organizational overhaul

   A Becker County District Court ordered the organization to pay $750,000 in damages, after which Honor the Earth restructured its governance and severed ties with Winona LaDuke.

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2. 1993Honor the Earth is founded

   Amy Ray and Emily Saliers founded Honor the Earth in Minnesota after meeting Winona LaDuke and consulting Indigenous environmental and community organizations.

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3. Dakota Access Pipeline opposition

   Honor the Earth became associated with opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline and with Indigenous-led efforts to defend water, treaty rights, and sovereignty.

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An Indigenous-led environmental justice and movement-building organization that links ecological protection with sovereignty, anti-colonial politics, community resilience, and opposition to extractive development.

Product categories. Environmental justice advocacy · Indigenous rights and sovereignty campaigns · Grassroots organizer support · Public education and communications · Movement-building and climate justice initiatives

• Land Back

  United States · Indigenous communities internationally

  Honor the Earth supports the Land Back movement, which seeks to restore Indigenous sovereignty and control over homelands taken or governed through colonial systems.

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• No Green Colonialism

  United States · Indigenous communities internationally

  This campaign challenges environmental and climate projects that present themselves as sustainable while continuing resource extraction, land dispossession, or displacement of Indigenous communities.

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• Dakota Access Pipeline opposition

  United States

  Honor the Earth supported Indigenous-led resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline, emphasizing water protection, treaty obligations, cultural survival, and tribal sovereignty.

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• 2023Organizational restructuring after litigationStrategy

  The organization faced a court judgment requiring payment of $750,000 in damages in litigation related to an accusation of sexual harassment involving a former contract employee.

  What changed. Honor the Earth reorganized its governance, severed ties with Winona LaDuke, appointed an all-Indigenous-women board, and placed Krystal Two Bulls in the executive director role.

  Aftermath. The restructuring marked a significant change in leadership and institutional governance while the organization continued to present itself as an Indigenous environmental justice organization.

  Court-ordered damages. $750,000 (March 30, 2023)

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• 2023Sexual-harassment-related lawsuit and governance crisisControversy

  Becker County District Court ordered Honor the Earth to pay $750,000 in damages in a lawsuit stemming from an accusation of sexual harassment in 2015 involving a former contract employee. The judgment was followed by an organizational overhaul, including the termination of ties with Winona LaDuke and the appointment of an all-Indigenous-women board.

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• Honor the Earth participates in Dakota Access Pipeline opposition

  The organization and associated activists supported opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline, linking the campaign to Indigenous sovereignty, water protection, treaty rights, and resistance to extractive infrastructure.

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1. Honor the Earth
2. Honor the Earth official website