If you try to donate to the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)—one of America’s most influential anti-Israel activist groups—you’ll be instructed to make your check out to a group called “Honor the Earth.” The group last made its mark on the public discourse during the 2000 election—Ralph Nader’s running mate, Winona LaDuke, was one of its co-founders. But several decades and controversies later, the organization has become a skinsuit for radical activists who support decolonization, “land back,” and “collective liberation.”
No longer just about protecting water or opposing pipelines, Honor the Earth now positions itself as part of a global resistance to “racial capitalism” and “settler-colonialism.” The organization’s ties to the PYM, which has been accused of supporting terrorism, point to the need for heightened oversight.
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Honor the Earth did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
Honor the Earth was founded in 1993 by Winona LaDuke and the Indigo Girls, a folk-rock duo. Some of its members later joined the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Even as those protests grew more militant, Honor the Earth maintained its relatively sober mission “to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed . . . resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities.”
The group’s mission changed after it appointed a host of new leaders. In April 2023, LaDuke resigned after the resolution of a protracted lawsuit required the organization to pay “$750,000 for sexual harassment, mental suffering and retaliation.” After LaDuke’s departure, Krystal Two Bulls, a longtime activist, former director of NDN Collective’s LANDBACK Campaign, and a key organizer against the Dakota Access Pipeline, became the group’s sole executive director.
Two Bulls remains involved in lawsuits stemming from her actions against the Dakota Access Pipeline. In a case brought by Energy Transfer, the company alleges that she “organized, funded, and directed violent activities” targeting the pipeline. Earlier this year, Two Bulls and Greenpeace were cited as responsible for $650 million in damages. That amount was cut in half last month after a Motion to Reduce Damages ruling, but Energy Transfer expressed satisfaction that those deemed responsible are still being held accountable.
Starting in 2023, Honor the Earth began hiring organizers from the PYM. In 2023, Honor the Earth onboarded PYM organizer Nadya Tannous as its director of operations. Tannous has led a “solidarity delegation” abroad to meet with members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine such as Yacoub Odeh, a man who would be serving out three life sentences for a terrorist attack in 1969 if not for a prisoner deal. As of 2019, he was a board member of Addameer, a field group of the Popular Front. Last year, Honor the Earth named another PYM organizer, Lenna Zahran Nasr, to its board of directors. In June 2024, Honor the Earth became PYM’s official sponsor.
The new leadership promptly changed the organization’s official mission. In its most recent tax filing, Honor the Earth describes its purpose as “end[ing] colonialization and imperialism by defending the lifeways and sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples globally” by “resourcing, empowering, popularizing, and amplifying struggles for the land and all life.”
That new mission came with new projects. Earlier this year, Honor the Earth launched Decolonize U: a “knowledge-sharing platform” that offers a range of “trainings and toolkits for Indigenous Peoples.” The program seeks to create “a place where education is a weapon in our fight for Indigenous Sovereignty.” In one course, Decolonize U presents the “Land Back” movement—which argues that the U.S. should “return” land to American Indians—as “a solution to the climate crisis.”
Decolonize U’s curriculum extends beyond environmentalism. The program offers sessions such as Queerness 101, Indigenous Feminism(s) 101, Know Your Rights 101 at the U.S. Borders and Ports, and (Anti-)Ableism 101. These courses, rooted in critical theory, allow Honor the Earth to galvanize young activists around a broader agenda.
In a move that closely resembles the Palestinian Youth Movement’s Mask Off Maersk campaign, Honor the Earth has also begun mapping data centers located on what it calls “Indigenous lands.” The organization claims that “[i]t is imperative that we pay attention to the rapid expansion of data centers across our lands, and learn from frontline communities that are fighting back.” Given that such data centers are a strategic asset, and that Honor the Earth is sponsoring another group that seeks to disrupt the F-35 supply chain, this should raise questions among those committed to protecting America’s defense infrastructure.
Earlier this year, Senator Tom Cotton asked the IRS to investigate Honor the Earth. Cotton argued that Honor the Earth is “operating outside of the acceptable scope of activities in 26 U.S. Code § 501 for tax exemptions” by sending funds to PYM, given that group’s “public support for terrorism.”
Cotton’s letter underscores an urgent need for accountability. In North America, PYM has long collaborated with Samidoun, which the U.S. government in late 2024 designated a terrorist front affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. When former PYM senior leaders like Nadya Tannous, now with Honor the Earth, meet with PFLP members, it’s hard to dismiss their increasingly aggressive tactics. PYM’s protests have crossed into illegality and are accelerating toward new forms of militancy, targeting defense supply chains while its sponsor, Honor the Earth, pursues targeting critical data centers. A greater level of scrutiny is clearly warranted.
Unfortunately, the IRS’s Exempt Organizations unit, which handles such cases, is critically understaffed. Despite massive growth in the nonprofit sector, the Exempt Organizations department lost 31 percent of its workforce this year alone. Adding nonpartisan, civic-minded professionals to this unit could curb radicalism by targeting groups that promote or engage in unlawful protest activity.
Honor the Earth is just one organization within a broader ecosystem of radical nonprofits. Its support for a group that allegedly supports terrorism offers a glimpse into the shady world of far-left activist shops—and points to the need for more vigorous enforcement of the tax code.
Photo by KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images
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