Amaya Balbuena, 15, a sophomore at Falmouth High School in Massachusetts, is a member of an activist group of her tribe’s youth, Mashpee NEA (Mashpee Wampanoag Native Environmental Ambassadors) dedicated to pursuing “rights of nature for all natural beings.” The group has been successful in its first major initiative to protect herring by having the tribal council confer rights on the species, a key one in the tribe’s history and economy. Amaya is also a basketball player.