AMY BOWERS CORDALIS
Amy Bowers Cordalis is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Ridges to Riffles
Indigenous Conservation Group (R2R), an Indigenous-led nonprofit dedicated to
protecting and restoring Indigenous land, water, and cultural resources. A Yurok
Tribal member, attorney, mother, and fisherwoman from the village of Rek-Woi on
the Klamath River, Amy became a lawyer after witnessing the largest fish kill in
history on her home waters— the devastating 2002 fish kill – and a lifetime of
environmental injustice.
R2R believes that healing the planet heals humans and that the Earth is a relative,
not a resource. Under Amy’s leadership, the group was critical in the historic
Klamath River dam removal, the largest river restoration project in history. Amy
advances Indigenous-led conservation by placing Native leaders and traditional
knowledge at the center of land and water management. She and her team also
lead litigation to protect endangered species, secure instream flows and uphold
Tribal sovereignty and rebuild ecosystem resiliency in water and hydropower law.
Amy has been recognized as a United Nations Champion of the Earth and a TIME
Climate 100 leader and is most proud of helping Tribal communities defend their
homelands and lifeways. She is the author of The Water Remembers, a memoir
about her indigenous family’s intergenerational fight to save a river and a way of
life.
EXPLORE AMY’S SPECIAL MOMENTS
