Developers eye Native nations, tribal communities for new data center projects

Page, Arizona sold a 500-acre parcel near Horseshoe Bend to Huntley LLC for $7 million to build a 1-gigawatt data center, prompting resident petitions and a formal resolution of opposition from the neighboring LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation, which cited drought conditions and the water demands of server cooling. The pattern is spreading nationally: tribal lands, often less developed due to historical treaty and removal actions, are increasingly targeted by data center developers, according to tribal relations experts and advocacy groups like Honor the Earth.

Some nations are pushing back outright. The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma enacted a full data center moratorium in March, the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma opposed construction in July, and the Cherokee Nation banned hyperscale data centers on tribal and trust lands in August after reviewing the economic and environmental impact. Advocates argue companies are exploiting limited economic diversity in tribal nations and the fact that sovereign governments aren't bound by the same state and local rules that are increasingly restricting data centers elsewhere.

Not every tribe is opposed: Colusa Indian Energy has built a tribally owned microgrid business partnering on data center projects, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs has offered tribes financial and technical support to pursue such deals. Separately, tribal leaders have raised concerns about Trump administration executive orders redrawing the boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments for mineral extraction, worried the same disregard for federal land protections could extend further.

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