The People Rise Up United Against Big Tech
The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma banned data centers. Inquiries about them are barred. They aren’t alone, as around the country, the people are leading a bipartisan fight against data centers.
The fights been relatively quiet and local, but they’re having a huge impact.
Can you imagine AI data centers being banned in states around the country? Pressure from local residents might make this happen. Local activism has emerged as a significant threat to the U.S. data center boom, with $64 billion of data center projects having been blocked or delayed amid local opposition between March 2024 and March 2025, according to Data Center Watch.
The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma banned data centers a few weeks ago. Even inquiries about them are barred. They aren’t alone, as around the country, the people are leading a bipartisan fight against data centers.
The US has the largest number of data centers already, and Donald Trump’s tech bro funded regime is deregulating them and funneling taxpayer money their way via government contracts.
They hardly need more of our money and land, because they are already suffocating us.
Native American Tribes Inspire
The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma voted unanimously to block data centers within its jurisdiction, marking yet another way Native American Tribes are leading the way forward.
Data centers are officially banned from lands under its jurisdiction.
The resolution approved by the Nation’s Tribal Council 24-0 on March 7th bars “any inquiries, discussions and/or developments concerning any entity seeking to develop a data center of any size within the Seminole Nation during the moratorium period.”
In other words, propaganda and relentless requests will not be tolerated. The end.
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It enacts a “moratorium on the advancement of generative artificial intelligence technology and hyperscale data center development within the Seminole Nation and within tribal lands and territories.”
Mekusukey Band Representative Glen Chebon Kernell, who introduced the resolution, said he hopes that their stand will inspire others and serve as a catalyst for relationships to blossom out of respect for the world we want.
“My hope, my prayer, is that the stance we’ve taken will serve as a catalyst for all Indigenous communities to provide resistance to any kind of extractive developments that will harm their people, their communities, and this Earth. I also hope that it serves as a catalyst for relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to blossom out of respect for the world we want around us.”
And while that might seem like a pipe dream, there is hope for us. The backlash to data centers is bipartisan.
