This indigenous skier and scientist is fighting both colonialism and climate change in the outdoor industry.
Photo credit: Matthew Tufts
Ellen Bradley
Ellen Bradley (she/her) is a Lingít skier and scientist born and raised in the Salish Sea (Puget Sound). A child of the People of the Tides, Ellen's ancestors come from a place where the Tongass rainforest-painted mountains meet the ocean, Lingít Aaní (Southeast Alaska). Ellen grew up skiing at Stevens Pass from age 4 and has fallen harder in love with skiing each season since. Skiing has always been the way Ellen has felt most connected to the land and her relatives especially as she grew up away from her traditional homelands. As a scientist, Ellen has worked on projects ranging from epiphyte growth on Big Leaf Maples in the Hoh Rainforest to the impact of wildfires on phytoplankton in tundra lakes of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. In the many hats Ellen wears, she roots all of her work in Traditional Ecological Knowledge, fighting for #LandBack and tribal sovereignty and self-determination.
What does being a feminist mean to you?
Coming from a matrilineal culture, feminism to me means uplifting matriarchs—mothers, aunties, and feminine wisdom—while honoring their sacred balance with the masculine. Neither can exist without the other, yet this relationship is not a rigid dichotomy of opposites but a fluid spectrum of interconnection. Each exists in relation to the other, as reflections of the self.
For me, feminism is not about separation but about understanding—recognizing the masculine as deeply as I understand myself, seeking to be mirrored by it, and embracing the dynamic interplay between these energies as a path to wholeness.
You’re an avid skier with such a beautiful sense of connection with the outdoors. What made you fall in love with skiing?
What made me fall in love with skiing is how it serves as a tool for connection—to everything. It’s a methodology for connection, a way of moving through landscapes that fosters a deep relationship with place. In doing so, it also strengthens the bonds with the people you share the moment with.
Unlike the colonial structures that define much of our world today, skiing doesn’t have to fit into a profit-driven model. It exists outside of that system. You don’t need a lift ticket or a resort; you can step into the woods, glide just 100 feet, and call it skiing. It’s about presence, movement, and the freedom to engage with the land on your own terms.
We are so inspired by the work you do to advocate for Indigenous rights and for the planet. Are there any initiatives that you’re particularly passionate about at the moment?
The Alaska Native Without Land is an initiative that advocates for the restoration of ancestral land for five communities (Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Wrangell, and Tenakee Springs) in Southeast Alaska who were unjustly left out of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. This movement and the lawful recognition of these communities under ANCSA is a matter of Land Back.
Photo credit: @emelex
You’ve done some incredible scientific research, from looking at epiphyte growth on Big Leaf Maples in the Hoh Rainforest to the impact of wildfires on phytoplankton in tundra lakes of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. As a scientist, what are the biggest lessons that you’ve learned about climate change?
The biggest lesson I’ve learned about Climate Change as a scientist is that the best solution is Land Back. Through my research, I have studied the sink and sources of carbon, wrapping my head around all of the inputs and outputs that lead us to an increased level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at a rate faster than has been recorded in history. One of those sources, permafrost which as it thaws emits carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, has not been incorporated into climate models that determine the climate budgets that governmental organizations and institutions have used to determine what we need to do to curb Climate Change. Permafrost holds nearly 3x the amount of carbon dioxide in it than is presently in the atmosphere, and as the arctic uncontrollably warms these emissions are released at unprecedented rates. If the top scientist sharing this research with the top governmental officials in the world hasn’t led to tangible change on the global scale … then we must seek change in other ways. Giving the Land Back, which can be done by individuals, corporations, nonprofits, and governments, is one of the most significant steps we can take to impact the rate of climate change. Direct actions, moving beyond simply voting as a means to enact change, general strikes .. whatever it is, we need people utilizing all of the tools at hand to stop unregulated industrial imperialism from making on uninhabitable planet all for a profit.
Photo credit: Matthew Tufts
Photo credit: @wheretowillie
In an interview with Pattie Gonia, you outlined that Indigenous people make up 5% of the world’s population but steward 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. Could you break down why this is the case and what this looks like?
This stat, Indigenous people make up 5% of the world’s population but steward 80% of the planet's biodiversity comes from a study of Indigenous peoples across the globe. While imperialism has spread far and wide like a parasitic disease, in the areas where Indigenous people have maintained stewardship of the land, we see a significantly decreased presence of extractive industries, in comparison to the imperial core. Where extractive industries exist, biodiversity decreases. It’s like a game of Jenga, even if the extraction is in theory only happening to one species, the web of life is so intricately connected that you can see nearly the whole tower of blocks fall down after pulling one block out. Indigenous peoples everywhere, while not a monolith and having built an unimaginable diversity of types of communities and cultures, have historically not destroyed the very lands they depend on both to live and to thrive.
Most people have heard the words “land back,” but might not know what that actually means. What does land back mean to you?
Land Back means rematriating ancestral lands to the people who have stewarded them since time immemorial. Land Back means relationship, it means reciprocity, it means balance. Land Back isn’t about the Western concept of “ownership”. It means more than “land”. Land Back is also Language Back, Water Back, Culture Back, Art Back, Medicine Back, it is the freedom to participate in the ecological role we as Indigenous peoples fulfill.
How can our community take action to support the land back movement?
The Feminist community can take action to support the LandBack movement by first educating themselves further on this movement. A great place to start is with the book “Required Reading by NDN Collective: Climate Justice, Adaptation and Investing in Indigenous Power by NDN Collective”. You all can start learning about the Indigenous communities who live in the area you now call home then figure out how to support the community, whether that be through direct donations (like “Real Rent”’s), supporting different Nations' Land Back efforts, or showing up to uphold Indigenous sovereignty wherever it is threatened, especially by this current administration.
Photo credit: @emelex
What are your favorite ways to recharge and connect with nature?
Cold dips in the ocean are my favorite way to recharge and connect with the more than human world. The water is medicine. This activity was traditionally about cultivating strength, mentally, spiritually, and physically. For me, cold dips are absolutely about strength, but they are also about surrender and connection. There is always a fear before a cold dip, a doubt that this is a good idea, or a temptation that sitting inside by a fire sounds better. But the feeling as you emerge from the water is one of the most exhilarating. I have never regretted a dip, no matter how strongly I resist entering the water. The water always holds me so gently and thrusts me back on the land more alive than when I approached.
Photo credit: Matthew Tufts
