Movement Rights is an Indigenous organization that advocates for left-of-center environmentalist policies aligned with the “Rights of Nature” philosophy that advocates for giving explicit political rights to inanimate and non-conscious aspects of nature, such as rivers. Movement Rights also opposes the use of conventional fuels and challenges exploitation of resources on or near tribal lands. ^{1 2}

Beliefs

Movement Rights seeks to transform the economy from a system based on what it calls “colonial law” to one based on what it calls “natural law.” It argues that economic systems are based on the exploitation of nature through “owners” pursuing “endless profit,” while Movement Rights’ preferred system places the wellbeing of nature and the earth at its center. ²

To that end, Movement Rights advocates for an end to the use of conventional fuels and promotes Indigenous methods of cleaning the environment and combating climate change. It supports a merger of “ancient traditional knowledge and modern technology” to remove pollution from the environment, calls for the return of traditional crops and agricultural practices, and advocates the development of weather-dependent energy sources on tribal lands. ²

Rights of Nature

Much of Movement Rights’ work is based around the concept of “Rights of Nature,” the notion that nature has inalienable moral and political rights that should be recognized and protected by governments. Movement Rights sent an American Indigenous delegation to New Zealand to learn from the Whanganui tribe, the first governing entity “to recognize a river’s rights to regenerate its vital cycles.” Movement Rights also works with the Ponca tribe, the first American tribal entity to codify Rights of Nature. Movement Rights co-founder Shannon Briggs has worked with tribal groups in Bolivia, Ecuador, New Zealand, Colombia, and India that have implemented forms of Rights of Nature. ^{1 2}

Movement Rights hosts Intertribal Rights of Nature Forums, meetings of tribal leaders to discuss the Rights of Nature philosophy and its implementation. ³

Campaigns

The Ponca Rights of Nature Campaign, launched in 2015, is Movement Rights’ campaign to support the Ponca tribe of Oklahoma in its ongoing legal advocacy for Rights of Nature recognition and battles against energy companies operating on or near tribal lands. In 2019, Movement Rights and the Ponca tribe held the first Frontline Oil and Gas conference on Ponca territory to discuss strategies for challenging fossil fuel companies. The campaign also conducted a protest at the Phillips 66 headquarters in Houston and launched a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women public awareness campaign. ⁴

Movement Rights’ Convening of the Four Winds campaign seeks to clean numerous waterways running through 37 tribal and non-tribal lands in Oklahoma that have been polluted by energy companies. ⁵

The Rights of Nature Cohort Series Campaign consists of four separate Indigenous environmental advocacy campaigns based in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Alaska. ⁶

Leadership

Movement Rights was co-founded by Pennie Opal Plant, a woman of “Yaqui, Mexican, undocumented Choctaw and Cherokee and European descent.” She also founded the Native advocacy group Idle No More SF Bay and the Society of Fearless Grandmothers, an organization that trains older women to deal with police in a non-violent manner. Plant works as an advisor to Movement Rights. ⁷

Movement Rights was also co-founded by Shannon Briggs. She worked at Global Exchange for 12 years and ran the organization’s Community and Nature’s Rights program. Briggs co-founded and was an executive committee member of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. ⁷

Funding

In 2023, Movement Rights received a grant from the NDN Collective, a left-of-center Native American advocacy organization best known for campaigning to close the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. ⁸

Also in 2023, Movement Rights received a $63,422 grant from Global Exchange, a left-of-center nonprofit advocacy group that works on environmental issues and economic policy. ⁹

Movement Rights’ Frontline Oil and Gas conferences have been sponsored by Stop the Frack Attack, the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Seventh Generation Fund, 350.org, the Sierra Club, Stand.earth, LUSH, the Rainforest Action Network, the Wallace Global Fund, the Patagonia Foundation, the Global Greengrants Fund, Earthworks, Friends of the Earth, the National Resources Defense Council, Earth Guardians, Oil Change International, Earthjustice, the Piper Fund, the Oklahoma Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and the Na’ah Illahee Fund. ¹⁰

1. “Our Work and Mission.” Movement Rights. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://movementrights.org/our-theory-of-change-work/.
2. “Ponca Tribal Rights of Nature: Restoring the Balance.” Solve. April 17, 2024. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://solve.mit.edu/solutions/90282.
3. “Workshops.” Movement Rights. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://movementrights.org/workshops/.
4. “The Ponca Rights of Nature Campaign.” Movement Rights. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://movementrights.org/ponca-rights-of-nature-campaign/.
5. “Convening of the Four Winds.” Movement Rights. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://movementrights.org/convening-of-the-four-winds/.
6. “Na’ah Illahee Fund’s 2022 Intertribal Rights of Nature Cohort series.” Movement Rights. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://movementrights.org/rights-of-nature-cohort-series/.
7. “Meet Our Team.” Movement Rights. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://movementrights.org/team/.
8. “NDN Collective Announces 2023 Community Self-Determination Grantee Partners.” NDN Collective. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://ndncollective.org/ndn-collective-announces-2023-community-self-determination-grantee-partners/.
9. “Global Exchange,” Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990) 2023. Schedule I.
10. “Resources.” Movement Rights. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://movementrights.org/resource/#:~:text=Earth%20%E2%80%A2%20LUSH%20%E2%80%A2%20Rainforest,registered%20for%20the%20FOG%20Conference..