Data Centers Are Now Targeting Native American Lands
The Caddo Nation, a federally recognized Native American tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma, has struggled financially since its casino closed in 2017. Some Caddo leaders believe the data center boom is their only path forward for their people to provide for their families. Bobby Gonzalez, the Caddo chairman, said, “We’re not poor. We’re broke.”
As Tracy Newkumet, a former tribal council member, prepared for the Caddos’ traditional turkey dance, she told Mr. Gonzalez that she could live without a cell phone, but not without water, which is one of the biggest concerns of building data centers in the Indian Country.
Outside of Native lands, the expansion of data centers worries many in Republican and Democratic communities, as citizens and local government deal with noise, water, and energy concerns.
The National Congress of American Indians wants to expand on the Trump Administration’s plan for A.I. by using Tribal lands. Last fall, Larry Wright Jr., the Congress’s executive director, wrote, “Tribal lands, which are vast, strategically located, and home to an eager American work force, are the ideal place to build the infrastructure that will power America’s A.I. dominance.”
Energy projects on non-tribal lands can face delays of three to ten years, while ones on tribal lands proceed quicker because tribes hold sovereign authority, which makes decision making quicker. Though many tribal leaders are in no rush to approve data centers.
Last year, the council of the Muscogee Nation, based in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, rejected the redevelopment of a 5,570-acre piece of land for agriculture and meat processing, to a hyperscale A.I. data center and technology park.
Jordan Harmon, a Muscogee lawyer and policy specialist for the Indigenous Environmental Network, said, “That’s where the community sometimes is in conflict or butting heads with tribal leadership.”
Now, all turn to see what the Cherokee tribe, the most populous in the country, will do. Their population insists of 480,000 enrolled members in a 7,000-square-mile reservation almost the size of New Jersey.
Though, so far, Chuck Hoskin Jr., the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, has been careful, studying environmental and economic impacts of data centers. He said, “We don’t want to be on the sidelines, but we don’t want to be bystanders…We’re moving probably slower than some governments.”
State Representative Brad Boles, a Cherokee member who won last month’s Republican primary for a seat on the state’s regulatory board, put in a multi-party effort, to prevent bill strikes from households and businesses that could be affected by data centers.
The Colusa Indian Community of Northern California has operated their own electricity grid and power plant for two decades. Ken Ahmann, chief operating officer of Colusa Indian Energy, said, “There’s a mistrust of corporate America in general, and we share that mistrust…Our charter in this space is to help act as a firewall and a negotiating partner on behalf of the tribes.”
The question of whether data centers will or will not benefit Native American tribes is still on the table.
Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/us/data-centers-native-american-tribes.html