| Eriel Deranger | |
| Birth Name: | Eriel Tchekwie Deranger |
| Nationality: | Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Canada |
| Occupation: | Indigenous rights and climate change activist |
| Employer: | Indigenous Climate Action |
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger (born 1979) is a Dënesųłiné indigenous rights activist and climate activist. She is executive director of Indigenous Climate Action.
Deranger worked as communications coordinator for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation beginning in 2011.[1] She has also worked for Rainforest Action Network and Sierra Club Canada.[2] Her work and activism has focused on the recognition of the sovereignty of the indigenous people of the Treaty 8 area of Canada.[3]
Deranger organized activism and indigenous protests against the expansion of the Athabasca oil sands in Alberta, Canada.[4] [5] She was a founder of the Tar Sands Healing Walk, an annual ceremony from 2010-2014.
In 2015, Deranger was one of several cofounders of Indigenous Climate Action, an indigenous-led organization that argues that Indigenous rights and knowledge are a necessary part of addressing climate change and achieving climate justice.[6] The organization also developed resources for indigenous communities facing the effects of climate change.[7]
In 2017, Deranger became executive director of Indigenous Climate Action.
Deranger was born in 1979 and is Dënesųłiné and a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.[8] [9] Deranger's parents were members of the American Indian Movement who met at the Wounded Knee Occupation.
Deranger is married and has two children.[10]
Deranger was one of three activists profiled in the 2012 documentary Elemental, which depicts her opposition to the Keystone Pipeline.[11]