Several Native American tribes across the U.S. have moved to restrict data-center development or review potential effects as the facilities that support artificial intelligence and other technologies continue to draw significant scrutiny. The rapid development of data centers across the country has become a political flashpoint, with residents and lawmakers voicing concern over the facilities' electricity and water consumption, environmental impacts, and proximity to residential areas. The facilities can require significant amounts of electricity and, depending on their cooling systems, water, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Newsweek reached out to the Native American tribes mentioned in this article for comment via email on Tuesday. In Oklahoma, the Cheyenne and Arapaho approved a three-year prohibition on data centers on tribal lands at their annual Tribal Council meeting on Saturday, according to KOSU, which reported that members approved the resolution to prevent the construction of data centers as the tribes examine their possible effects. In August, the Cherokee Nation announced that Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. was implementing a ban on hyperscale data-center development on tribally owned and trust lands.
The action followed a report from the Principal Chief’s Data Center Task Force examining the facilities’ possible economic, environmental and community effects, according to a release. Among the task force’s findings were that a “large majority of Cherokee Nation citizens surveyed” voiced opposition to hyperscale data center development within the Cherokee Nation Reservation over environmental and community concerns. The nation also said it would not consider supporting hyperscale projects on other land within its reservation unless developers conducted “robust consultation” with the tribe.
While several tribal nations have moved to restrict data-center development, the Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community in California has announced plans for an artificial-intelligence and energy infrastructure campus on tribal land. Tribally owned Colusa Indian Energy and developer Strata Expanse announced the partnership in March. In July, the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma said its Business Committee declared its opposition to commercial and industrial data centers on tribal land.
The committee said in a statement posted to social media that large-scale facilities could place substantial demands on water, electricity and other utilities. It also expressed concern that commercial data centers may offer “limited employment opportunities” compared with their resource demands. Outside of Oklahoma, the Hualapai Tribe in Arizona enacted a moratorium on hyperscale data-center development after its Tribal Council passed a resolution opposing such facilities on the tribe’s nearly one-million-acre reservation, according to KJZZ.
"We will always protect our land, and we will always protect our water. Hualapai Tribe will stand strong with any community—and we will oppose these data centers," Hualapai Chairman Duane Clarke told the outlet, which noted that the tribe shares 108 miles of border with the drought-stricken Colorado River. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Geoffrey Rowland.
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