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Photo: Margaret Scott testifies before the Salix City Council meeting in Iowa on September 9, 2026. (Courtesy Kevin Hurley / Riverbend Video Production / YouTube)
The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska is fighting to stop a potential Google data center in Salix, Iowa, just across the state line near the Missouri River. Chrystal Blair explains.
Google is considering a site spanning about 900 acres. Tribal leaders say the project could put pressure on water that the Tribe has a legal right to use based on a Supreme Court ruling more than a century ago.
Margaret Scott is a member of the Winnebago Tribal Council.
“The groundwater from the Dakota Sandstone Aquifer and the Missouri River are actually where our wells pull from in the Winnebago Reservation, and all the fresh water that sustains our community is actually from these two aquifers.”
She says the Winnebago Tribal Council has approved a resolution opposing hyperscale data centers on or near its reservation. Google says it is still evaluating the Salix site and intends to consider local water resources as it develops plans.
Scott notes Tribal leaders have attended meetings to make their position known, submitting written comments as Woodbury County consider rules for data centers.
She emphasizes that the Tribe’s opposition to the hyperscale data center is deeper than just an objection to a neighborhood development.
“This is a sovereignty issue, because whenever the U.S. government reserves land for an Indian Tribe, it’s implied that they reserve all the water necessary to sustain the Tribe now and into the future.”
She adds that protecting the water matters for the Tribe’s future generations, referencing a troubling global projection from UNICEF.
“UNICEF’s actually saying by 2040, one in four children will be in water stress, meaning that they will have a very, you know, high lack of water.”
Scott stresses that the Missouri River is part of the Tribe’s identity, history and way of life.
She says the Tribe has given its contact information to Google and MidAmerican Energy, but neither have contacted Tribal leaders about the potential data center.
Comedian and TV writer Joey Clift is out with his first book, “We’ve Been Here the Whole Time! A Not So Sacred Guide to All Things Native America.”
The Cowlitz Tribal member says it is to help non-Natives better understand Indian Country.
Brian Bull of Underscore Native News has this preview.
Clift is the creative mind behind a viral video about cultural appropriation and “Pretendians”, which hit social media four years ago. “Just Because You Say You’re A Bear Doesn’t Make You A Bear” is a light-hearted short with a serious message.
“If you wear the traditional clothing of a bear when telling a bear that you’re also a bear, you’ll get mauled by that bear.”
Clift sees humor as a way to ease some otherwise reluctant audiences into empathizing with other cultures and communities.
“Comedy is a fantastic tool to educate people about something they’re not educated about. I feel like your average person is probably not going to sit down and watch a lecturer read a thousand-page book about the history of this continent. But if you can wrap some of those lessons into a two-minute comedy video full of jokes, it’s basically like putting some sugar and some candy around the medicine.”
“I think that this book does a really good job of giving a base level Indian 101 conversation, covering a little bit of everything, things like history but also explaining things like the Land Back movement, and tribal enrollment, treaties, tribal sovereignty. I mean there’s an entire chapter about how cool my tribe’s casino is, y’know?”
The book expounds on a 2022 video Clift produced that took high schools to task for limiting Native history to the pre-1900s, leaving the rest to general ignorance and Hollywood tropes.
“We don’t have magic powers but I wish we did, ’cause I’d use them to make it so your school taught you that Native people can’t talk to animals instead of whatever the presidential fitness test is. You heard what I said!”
Figures like Andrew Jackson, John Wayne, and Native-themed sports mascots also get called out, but it is not just ire and eyerolls.
Clift also highlights notable Natives, from super athlete Jim Thorpe to Deb Haaland, the first Native person to serve as a U.S. Cabinet secretary.
The overall goal is to have a few laughs, but also learn some new things.
“I hope that this book is like, your first step into your Native education journey. And that your next step is to just inundate yourself with other cool Native orgs, artists, musicians and people to get even more educated about this. I’m just one person, so the only way to really get educated is to seek out other perspectives.”
“We’ve Been Here the Whole Time” hits bookstores October 6.
Statue of Juan Cabrillo at Cabrillo national monument in San Diego, Calif. in November 2025. (Photo: Blervis / Wikimedia)
And on this day in 1542, Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed into what is now San Diego Bay, becoming the first European known to reach the west coast of what is now the United States.
His arrival marked the beginning of European exploration and colonization along the California coast
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Check out today’s Native America Calling episode
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