Dana Tizya-Tramm

Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm, the elected chief of Vuntut Gwitchin First Nations, has advocated for environmental and species protection, Indigenous rights, and renewable energy for the past decade. In addition to being the first Indigenous Chief to pass an emergency climate declaration, which set the precedent for the Council of Yukon First Nations, and the Yukon and Canadian governments, as a member of Vunvut Gwitchen First Nation, he also negotiated an Electricity Purchase Agreement to sell electricity back to utility companies creating a paradigm shift in the traditional fiscal relationships. This EPA has built a solar farm within the community that has reduced fossil fuel reliance by 190,000L per year and GHG emissions by 680 tonnes of CO2e per year. Chief Dana also advocated successfully with COP25, the Arctic Council, AFN, CYFN, and others to incorporate renewable principles of Indigenous ways of knowing and being, when they do the work of decolonizing modern economies.