Help Loren Clean up Tar Creek

Loren's dream is to increase visibility of Indigenous environmental efforts, like the clean-up of Superfund site Tar Creek in Oklahoma, across the country and to see her community inspired to participate in protecting their environment.

Loren Waters (Cherokee Nation/Kiowa Tribe) is dedicated to combating the underrepresentation of Native voices and stifling of environmental injustice coverage by bringing together Indigenous environmental activists and showcasing Indigenous environmental films, including her project, Meet Me At The Creek. Meet Me At The Creek is a documentary highlighting Cherokee elder Rebecca Jim's fight to restore Tar Creek. Through this documentary, Loren hopes to inspire her community to fight for clean water rights, demand environmental justice, increase visibility of Native culture and their stories.

Loren is a part of the Native American community in Tulsa and the surrounding area. Thirty years after Tar Creek was designated for federal superfund cleanup, its residents are still fighting for decontamination and environmental justice. Why? Their Native community lacks representation which has a direct, negative impact on individuals and communities. According to the Reclaiming Native Truth (RNT) research project of 2018, "invisibility is one of the biggest barriers Native peoples face in advocating for tribal sovereignty, equity and social justice."

Loren's community is fighting for their basic right to clean water because they are fighting invisibility. The community's Cherokee elders believe that what happens to water happens to all of us. Loren is working to raise visibility and voices fighting for environmental justice, including protecting our waters, and is working to teach others to honor water, because without it, we cannot move culture forward and we cannot exist here.

Stand with Loren to demand environmental justice on native lands, including the clean-up of Tar Creek.