Anita Hofschneider

“No words can describe how we feel knowing that our land is coming back to the ownership of the Yurok people,” said Joseph James, the chairman of the Yurok Tribal Council.

 As the Trump administration dismantles climate action and cuts funding to Indigenous peoples around the world — and far-right politics continues to rise globally — experts see the conclave's selection of Robert Francis Prevost, or Pope Leo XIV as he is now known, as a clear beacon that the faith-based climate justice movement his predecessor led isn't going anywhere.

"Growing up in my mother's Pueblo household made me fierce. I'll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land," Haaland said in 2021 ahead of her congressional confirmation vote. 

This week, the International Court of Justice began hearing oral arguments in a high-profile case brought by the island nation of Vanuatu on what obligations United Nations member states have under international law to protect the planet from greenhouse gas emissions for future generations.

Native islanders on Guam are expecting to get long-awaited compensation from the U.S. government for their suffering at the hands of imperial Japan during World War II.

More than 100 people are suing the Catholic archdiocese on this Pacific island, where for centuries the church has been intertwined with local culture.