Panel III - Tribal Sovereignty & Indigenous Ecological Knowledge

Quetza Ramirez

MA Student

Soka University of America

Quetza is an MA student at Soka University of America, in their final Educational Leadership and Societal Change program semester. Quetza was born and raised in New York and has an associate’s degree in Liberal Arts and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Quetza is looking forward to pursuing an Environmental Law degree after SUA.



Over the last four years, Quetza has been in the process of reclaiming their Indigeneity, which is Mexica or more commonly known as Aztec. Reclaiming their Indigeneity is tied to the cultural gap in their family’s lineage and their parents’ migration from Mexico to NYC.



In these last four years, Quetza’s understanding of spirituality helped them navigate challenging life situations as an undergraduate student. The Indigenous perspective recognizes that we are all spiritual beings and that our relationship with the Earth is an essential spiritual practice. Quetza’s spiritual practices help them understand the community and personal growth’s complex and fascinating interconnections. Quetza strives to know how to use their privileges to contribute to movements focused on accessing education for all, ethical resources for marginalized communities, and eco-centered frameworks.



Thus Quetza’s spiritual practices helped them develop their thesis on Climate Justice, Indigenous Liberation, and Decolonial Practices. Quetza focuses on Indigenous and environmental activists supporting communities and being involved in oil resistance. Quetza has interviewed folks from North and South America to bridge the perspectives of these two places. And lastly, the perceptions of SDGs are a comparative point throughout their thesis. Quetza can gain insight into gaps between the UN and the frontlines by asking folks involved in community support and oil resistance what they define as a sustainable future.

Gerald Torres

Professor of Environmental Justice

Yale School of the Environment / Yale Law School

Gerald Torres is Professor of Environmental Justice at the Yale School of the Environment, with a secondary appointment as Professor of Law at the Law School.

A pioneer in the field of environmental law, Torres has spent his career examining the intrinsic connections between the environment, agricultural and food systems, and social justice. His research into how race and ethnicity impact environmental policy has been influential in the emergence and evolution of the field of environmental justice. His work also includes the study of conflicts over resource management between Native American tribes, states, and the federal government.

Previously, Torres taught at Cornell Law School, the University of Texas Law School, and the University of Minnesota Law School, serving as an associate dean at both. He is also a former president of the Association of American Law Schools and served as deputy assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice during the Clinton administration. 

Torres’s past work has examined how U.S. regulations have created racially or ethnically marginalized communities that bear a disproportionate share of environmental burdens and also has focused on developing strategies to improve governmental decision-making. He is also a leading scholar in critical race theory — a theoretical framework that examines questions of race and racism from a legal standpoint. His book The Miner’s Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy, coauthored with Lani Guinier, was described as “one of the most provocative and challenging books on race produced in years.”

Aja DeCoteau

Aja K. DeCoteau is a citizen of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and has other tribal lineage with the Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. She grew up on the Yakama reservation and has over twenty years of experience working on natural resource management and policy issues in the Columbia River Basin. She has been the Executive Director for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) in Portland, OR, since November 2021 and was previously the Watershed Department Manager for the last twelve years. With a team of 150 staff in five locations, she coordinates fisheries restoration and watershed protection activities on behalf of the treaty reserved fishing rights of the Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Warm Springs tribes in the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Aja sits on the Board of Trustees for Earthjustice, the Board of Directors for American Rivers, Columbia Land Trust, Portland Energy Conservation, Inc. (PECI), the Board of Directors for the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), and the Advisory Council for the Yale Center for Environmental Justice. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Native American Studies from Dartmouth College and holds a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University, School of the Environment.