Houska co-founded Not Your Mascots, an organization and social media campaign that educates the public about stereotyping and representation of Native Americans, including work on getting Washington, D.C.'s football team to change its name.[1][2]
Protesters of the Line 3 Pipeline at the Minnesota State Capital.
Houska founded and runs the Giniw Collective.[3][4] She and others from the collective fought for seven years against construction of the Line 3 pipeline, an oil pipeline running from Alberta to Wisconsin. Three of those years she spent living in a tent on the pipeline's route, including during harsh winters. The area's tribal nations maintain the treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather on land along the pipeline, which crosses many bodies of water. Tribal nations also grow wild rice there, which has cultural and historic importance. The Giniw Collective often uses their bodies to stop or slow construction as a form of protest, including crawling inside the pipeline, squatting in trees, and tying themselves to machines. Houska has also engaged politicians directly, including meetings with the Biden administration to push for the federal government to intervene and suspend the project's permit.[3]Minnesota Now called her "one of the leaders in the movement to stop the construction of new pipelines".[4]
Tara Houska speaking with Mylene Vialard, a U.S. protester for the Line 3 pipeline who was arrested in 2021.
Houska is a former adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders as his campaign Native American advisor.[3] During his 2016 presidential campaign, she was the lead author of his Native policy platform.[5]
Houska received the 2023 Rose-Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism at Dickinson College.[10] The prize rewarded her work as a tribal attorney, land defender, and founder of the Giniw Collective.[10]
Houska also received the 2021 American Climate Leadership Award and the 2019 Rachel's Network Catalyst Award.[11]
Map showing the pinpoint location of Ranier, Minnesota, the area Houska spent her childhood.
Personal life
Houska was born in International Falls, Minnesota.[12] She grew up in Ranier, Minnesota, where Rainy Lake connects to Rainy River.[13] Ranier is across the border of Ontario's legal reserve for the Couchiching First Nation community.[13] Houska graduated from Falls High School, and earned a law degree from the University of Minnesota while learning the Anishinaabe language.[13] She then moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked for a private firm representing tribes around the country.[13]
In Washington, Houska met Winona LaDuke, and she later worked as a lawyer for LaDuke's environmental advocacy organization Honor the Earth.[13] Since 2019 she has worked for the Giniw Collective and Stop Line 3 protests.[13]
