Claire Charlo

Agriculture WG co-lead

Claire Charlo is a member of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes from the Flathead Reservation in Montana. Claire was homeschooled and taught cultural lessons on medicinal plants, Salish language, beading, tanning deer hides for regalia and moccasin making. At a young age, she began her spiritual learning with song, traditional knowledge and practices and winter ceremony. She graduated from Cornell College, in Iowa, with a double Bachelors in Women and Ethnic Studies. Claire went on to University of Arizona School of Law and graduated with a Juris Doctorate. In 2021, she attended and graduated from The Berta Cáceres International Feminist Organizing School. While working full-time as a Civil Advocate for the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribal Defenders, she served on the board of the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center, directing a legal self-help clinic for ten years while simultaneously raising awareness for MMIW/R and Indigenous environmental justice movements and actions. Now, the IEN Indigenous Feminisms Organizer, she identifies key issues in environmental justice that intersect with Indigenous matriarchy/feminism. Claire also raises awareness of MMIW/R and the connection between extractive industries and the violence against Earth.