On Jan. 8, 2026, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the inherent legal rights of the Longperson (Ganvhidv Asgaya), an interconnected waterway system whose headwaters rise in the Great Smoky Mountains and end in the sea.

The resolution was brought forward by the NAIWA Daughters, a group of Indigenous girls aged 10 to 17, making it the first all-female-led rights-of-nature effort in the U.S., and only the second such youth-led resolution passed by a Tribal nation.

The effort followed 18 months of grassroots organizing and built on the foundations of the rights-of-nature movement, which holds that ecosystems and natural entities should have legal standing to exist and flourish.

The Longperson resolution grants the waterway five inherent rights and has already spurred related action, including a separate tribal resolution to raise funds for removing the Ela Dam.