Covering Native Connection to the Land
Stream Data Centers is proposing a $19 billion data center campus next to the Tonawanda Seneca Nation reservation near Alabama, New York. The project is paused under New York’s data center moratorium and a lawsuit filed by the nation with the Sierra Club over potential threats to tribal sovereignty, land and cultural ties.
A proposed $19 billion Stream Data Centers campus near Alabama, New York, has raised concerns among members of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation because of its proximity to the nation’s reservation and ancestral lands. The Genesee County Economic Development Center has promoted the project, while the nation argues that the development could threaten its sovereignty, environment and cultural relationship with the land.
The project is currently paused because of New York’s data center moratorium and a lawsuit filed by the Tonawanda Seneca Nation with the Sierra Club. The article, written by environmental journalist Yessenia Funes, uses the dispute to urge greater media attention to Indigenous communities confronting data centers, fossil-fuel infrastructure, climate impacts and other threats to their territories.