Submitted by Eastern Cherokee Organization
CHEROKEE, N.C. – The Eastern Cherokee Organization is hosting a Cherokee Data Center Town Hall meeting at the Yellowhill Activity Center at 1416 Acquoni Rd. in Cherokee, N.C. on Saturday, April 25 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. This event is in collaboration with the Indigenous Environment Network and Bigwitch Indian Wisdom Initiative.
Jordan Harmon, Cheyenna (Chey) Morgan, and Kenzie Roberts will be the guest speakers for the event.
Eastern Cherokee Organization states, “They have been leading the way in the fight against hyperscale data centers! We look forward to the conversations and insights they will provide for our community.”
Jordan Harmon
Harmon is a Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen from Tulsa, Okla. She is of the Deer Clan (ecovlke) and descended from Ceyaha Tribal Town. She graduated law school in 2017 from the University of Tulsa with a Native American Law certificate and now works as a policy specialist for the Indigenous Environmental Network, working to advance a policy agenda that is centered on strengthening Indigenous nation-to-nation building, Indigenous rights, and an Indigenous just transition toward a sustainable future. Jordan is also a grassroots organizer within her community and has helped co-found a national coalition of Indigenous organizers against the buildout of hyperscale data centers.
Cheyenna (Chey) Morgan
Morgan is an enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians and comes from the Oglala Lakota nation. She is the coalition coordinator for Stop Data Colonialism, a national Indigenous coalition of tribal members organizing to stop the mass expansion of hyper-scale data centers and generative AI on tribal lands and to educate tribal and municipal leaders about the impacts of generative AI and hyper-scale data centers on tribal lands, communities, and sovereignty.
Kenzie Roberts
Roberts is a grassroots organizer working in the southern region of Mvskoke Nation in Yardeka (Creek) Indian Community. As vice chair of Yardeka (Creek) Indian Community Center, she helped found a community garden with grant funding from the NDNCollective Changemaker Fellowship, allowing her to secure infrastructure, supplies, and water for three years. Roberts currently serves on the CMN Extension Advisory Panel offering insight on how to engage our communities. This work has allowed her to grow culturally relevant foods in the garden to increase the accessibility to nutritious food and culturally relevant ingredients. These resources have allowed her to produce cultural cooking classes in person and virtually to connect the disconnect in our communities. Her other affiliations include being a co-cordinator of the Stop Data Colonialism Coalition, a national coalition of Indigenous frontliners holding the line against rapid hyperscale data center development, and co-founding S.A.C.R.E.D. Inc., a non-profit by Mvskoke people, for Mvskoke people, to reconnect all Mvskokvlke everywhere to their lands, ways, and people.
There will be a community meal at this event and participants are encouraged to bring a side dish.
