The waters of the Truckee River rush by the banks of Chrissie Caughlin Park on a sweltering summer afternoon in Reno, Nevada. The headwaters of the Truckee River begin in Tahoe and flow all the way to Pyramid Lake, home of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.
For Autumn Harry, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal member and co-founder of the Water Over Data Alliance, water is central to the debate around data centers. The high computing facilities that support AI have become a flashpoint for communities across the country and a growing voice in the debate is that of tribal communities.
“As more and more data centers get approved in the upper Truckee River — especially in Storey County — my big question is ‘where is that water coming from and how is that going to impact the endangered and threatened fish species that are within the lake?’” Harry said.
Pyramid Lake is home to the threatened Lahontan Cutthroat Trout and is the only existing home of the endangered Cui-ui fish, both central to the tribe’s identity.
“Our people are known as the Cui-Ui Dicutta, or the Cui-ui eaters,” Harry said.
In 2025 Harry hosted a data center literacy training, and after seeing the community involvement, she helped start the Water Over Data Alliance, or WODA. It is an indigenous-led group opposing data center construction in the Truckee River Watershed.
“We've been really focused on education, and educating the community about how data centers specifically impact indigenous communities and how it still is a form of land theft and water theft,” Harry said.
Harry points to history—her people know all too well about what happens when water is syphoned off upstream. In the early 1900’s the Derby Dam was constructed to divert water for irrigation in the neighboring Carson River watershed.
The results were catastrophic to her people and its impacts echoed through the landscape. Winnemucca Lake was once a National Wildlife Refuge, but the previous 28-mile-long lake is now a desiccated playa lake bed.
“For me knowing that history of that water theft and how that led to an extinction level event within my homelands, that's what I'm trying to prevent. I don't want that to ever happen again. It should not ever happen again,” Harry said.
Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Chairman, Steven Wadsworth said their community has been fighting for water sovereignty to protect their endangered fish and way of life for years. He is concerned the state’s laws are not keeping up with the rapid development in the region.
“Nevada is very much the Wild Wild West. We do not have laws on the books or laws that are severely outdated by what — 150 years?” Wadsworth said.
He is not only concerned about the water needed for data centers but also about the electricity needed to power them.
“If they're going to be cooled by water, we don't have the water to give up. If they're going to be cooled by air, we don't have the infrastructure, you know, the power lines to generate or use that kind of electricity for the area, especially with our rolling brownouts,” Wadsworth said.
For the past few years during the summer they often lose power in the afternoons, he said .
“Usually every day around five. The power just shuts off for a second or two until the grid can catch back up and then we're good to go,” Wadsworth said.
There are no data centers on the reservation, and many community members want to keep it that way. Earlier this summer, tribal members proposed a permanent moratorium on the centers within the reservation to the Tribal Council.
And on August 21, the data center ban passed, Harry said.
The Water Over Data Alliance is also pushing for a ban on data centers in the entire Truckee River Watershed.
This past year, they’ve shown up at Reno City Council meetings with a list of demands. And one demand was echoed again and again in public comments — the tribes having a seat at the decision making table.
“We demand the full free prior and informed consent of all tribal nations within the Truckee River Watershed. And what that means is the tribes need to consent to the approval of any data center. And that hasn't happened,” Harry said.
An example of this is in the neighboring Walker River Watershed. The 500-acre gigawatt Monarch data center North of Yerington is one step closer to approval, following the Lyon County Commissioners decision on Aug. 6 to approve zoning changes for the center’s construction. This comes amid strong tribal and community pushback.
Both the Yerington Paiute and the Walker River Paiute tribes released resolutions in opposition to the construction of Copia Power’s Monarch data center, citing environmental and cultural concerns.
The Yerington Paiute Tribal chairman, Ginny Hatch, said they oppose the data center and are very concerned not only about potential resources it will use but also about losing access to the land.
“It's supposed to be by the Fort Churchill area and that's actually one of our traditional food gathering areas,” said Hatch.
She said they had good relations with the previous owners of the land, and that tribal members could go harvest their traditional foods there. Where the data center is proposed to be built is also along a traditional migratory path for the Paiute people. Hatch said engaging in their traditions is important to rebuilding their connection to their cultural heritage, something they have been working hard to do.
“We're really worried about the resources, the impacts to the community and to the way of life.That's what makes us the tribe is we have shared values, traditions and our culture,” Hatch said. “And so, when things like this come in, it strips more of that down, it makes it harder to say why we're a tribe. What makes us special and different if we can't practice and use our traditional territories?”
These Northern Nevada tribal nations are not alone in their opposition to data centers.
Tribes across the country are opposing data center development on their homelands. In March the Seminole Nation in Oklahoma became the first tribe in the U.S. to ban them.
And in May, the Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe became the first in the region to ban the centers on their lands. The resolution brought by tribal council secretary Philip Johnson began with the quote, “Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, and the last river poisoned will we realize that money cannot be eaten.”
This pushback is in conflict with the Trump Administration’s push for data center expansion. In July of last year the White House issued an executive order to accelerate the permitting of AI data centers and the infrastructure needed to support them by easing federal regulations. This agenda is reflected in the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs’ blog post of this year. It outlined potential opportunities for tribes by partnering with data centers, framing it as an economic and development opportunity.
Water Over Data Alliance’s Harry is not buying it.
“There's no amount of money that will ever be worth that water and the link that we have to our ancestors when we're at the water and we're at the lake. So to me there's no comparison. It's not worth the risk. We have to do everything we can to be strong water protectors and make sure that our fish and our people are here for many, many generations to come,” Harry said.
