Tai Kondo Koester

I am a PhD student in the School of Geography, Development, & Environment at University of Arizona. My research draws from political ecology, Indigenous geographies, and critical development studies to study environmental politics in the US West and examines how the energy transition is shaping the political and economic futures of tribal nations and rural communities. My latest project examined the shifting political and economic conditions of southeastern Montana coal country: amid closing coal mines and power plants, I focused specifically on the struggle of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe to break from its economic dependence on energy production. I received my Master’s in Geography at the University of Arizona in 2024.

Prior to coming to Arizona, I worked for nearly three years at Northern Plains Resource Council, a grassroots conservation and family agriculture organization based in Billings, Montana. In this role I managed the Good Neighbor Agreement (GNA), a contract between Northern Plains and a multinational mining corporation, Sibanye-Stillwater, which extracts platinum and palladium ore from the Beartooth Mountains for use in catalytic converters. The Agreement gives local communities oversight of mine operations and implements a robust Adaptive Management Plan for monitoring water quality. My interest in mining and community agreements has continued through a fellowship with the Climate and Community Institute where I am coauthoring a report on the role of Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) in the energy transition.

I completed my undergraduate education in Geography and Evolutionary Biology & Ecology at the University of Colorado Boulder. There, I completed my honors thesis on the role of US public lands and historical mapping in the dispossession of Indigenous peoples, which together have gone on to shape the terrain upon which present-day Indigenous campaigns to protect the Bears Ears region must struggle.

Beyond my academic pursuits, I’m a passionate backcountry skier and mountain biker. When I’m not doing academic work, you can find me in the mountains (preferably with snow) or on a trail somewhere!

Publications:
Koester, Tai Kondo and Bryan, Joe. 2022. “The cartographic dispossession of Bears Ears: Confronting settler colonialism in contemporary struggles over ‘public land’”, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 5(4), 2332– 2355. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486211045358.