Eleanor Smith, Diné, is originally from T’iis Názbas, Arizona, near the Four Corners Monument on the Navajo Nation. She and her husband raised their seven children in Shiprock, New Mexico. At the completion of her Master’s degree in Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Education from Fort Lewis College, Eleanor was faced with an environmentally detrimental helium extraction proposal in her hometown community of T’iis Názbas, so she joined the Dooda (No) Helium movement, then helped found the grassroots T’iis Názbas Collaborative Coalition, and successfully averted the drilling of 64 helium wells in her small community.
In 2022, she began working part-time for Tó Nizhóní Ání (TNA-Sacred Water Speaks) as a Community Organizer and now works full-time for TNA, educating Diné impacted communities in their Diné language about proposed projects like the hydrogen pipeline, where developers have consistently failed to provide adequate community engagement and education about their projects.