Ponca Nation (USA) Tribal Resolution: Rights of Rivers

Summary

On 6 July 2022, the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma Business Committee (the governing body of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma) unanimously adopted a statute recognizing the “immutable Rights of Rivers” for two rivers that flow through Ponca territory and throughout Oklahoma: Ní’skà (Arkansas River) and Ni’ží’dè (Salt Fork River).

Legal Provisions (Page 3)
The Ponca Tribe recognizes that Ni’ska, Ni’zi’de, and all Ponca waterbodies are living entities with whom the Ponca have an inherent relationship under customary laws in accordance with longstanding Ponca Tribal beliefs and practices…

Ni’ska, Ni’zi’de, and all Ponca waterbodies possess inherent fundamental, and inalienable rights including the right to naturally exist and regenerate; the right to clean and unpolluted water; the right to natural groundwater and surface water recharge; the right to a healthy natural environment and native biodiversity; and the right to perform their natural ecosystem functions

Jurisprudential Framing
The law notes that “the Ponca people have always lived in a relationship of reciprocity and close kinship with the Rivers and waterbodies, both on their original homelands and on their territory today. The Rivers and waterbodies support and sustain the Ponca people, and the Ponca people and all peoples bear the responsibility to protect the Rivers and waterbodies.”

According to Movement Rights, following the Original Instructions of the tribe since time immemorial, women have been the keepers of the Waters and “for the Ponca people, rivers are themselves considered sacred feminine entities.” As such, the Ponca hereditary Women’s Society, Pa’thata, will assume “their hereditary responsibility to serve as the guardians of the two rivers.” (Movement Rights 2021).

Casey Camp Horinek, a Ponca elder and the Ponca Environmental Ambassador, presented the Rights of Rivers law, as well as the 2017 Rights of Nature law, to the Ponca Business Committee. Camp Horinek explained that this law is “another step in protecting the sacred waters which are the life sources of all things on Mother Earth, not just for our tribe. We have so much to learn from our waters, everything upstream impacts everything downstream, we are all connected” (qtd. in Movement Rights 2022).

Background
This Rights of Rivers law follows the 2017 Rights of Nature law adopted by the Ponca Nation. The resolution states that since the 2017 Resolution, the environmental and climate crisis and “threats to the Rivers, Ponca waterbodies, the Ponca people, and the world-wide global community of life have continued to increase”. Therefore, there’s “an immediate and urgent need to enact additional legislation to protect all living entities within the Indian Country subject to the jurisdiction of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, and that legislation must secure the highest protections for the Rivers’ and waterbodies’ inherent and legal rights”.

Ecological and Community Context
The law describes that the Ponca People experienced a forced removal and relocation from their original homelands in Nebraska and South Dakota to what is now the State of Oklahoma. Over two million acres of Treaty recognized Ponca land was seized by the federal government. Since then, the Ponca Tribe’s life and culture have been dependent upon, shaped by, and centered around Ni’ska (also known as the Arkansas River) and Ni’zi’de (also known as the Salt Fork River) as well as other waterbodies on our new homelands.

The Ponca Nation has also experienced severe environmental degradation and health hazards, as a result of environmental impacts from fossil fuel industry in the region. Fracking, pipelines, refineries, and toxic waste injection wells have leeched toxic waste into the ground and water sources. The threat of contaminated drinking water is such that the Ponca tribe has purchased drinking water from nearby Ponca city for decades. Movement Rights, this impact played a large role in the decision to adopt the Rights of Rivers statute. Shannon Briggs, co-founder of Movement Rights, explains that the adoption of this new rights of Nature law is about recognizing the “human responsibilities to protect the health of ecosystems and waterways that ensure all communities can survive and thrive.” (qtd, in Movement Rights 2022).

Moving Forward
The Ponca Nation intends to promote an intertribal effort to protect the rivers, and invites other sovereign Indigenous Nation/Tribes in Oklahoma to join this law. In 2022, the Ponca Nation hosted a statewide gathering – the “Convening of the 4 Winds” – which brought together 200-400 local and regional tribal communities with the purpose of “promoting discussion about Indigenous-led water protection, tribally-led scientific studies and ceremony and the role of Rights of Nature in supporting healthy river systems for all.” (Movement Rights 2022).

Involved Organizations

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