Earlier this week, Native Americans and environmentalists won a surprising victory when a power company abandoned a 20-year push to build a highly controversial coal mine in New Mexico. That victory was particularly sweet for Pablo Padilla, a member of the Zuni Pueblo tribe and a leader in the fight against the mine, which would have disrupted sacred burial sites and threatened Zuni Salt Lake, a focal point of spiritual life for many tribes in the area. Padilla, currently a 28-year-old law student at the University of New Mexico, was the tribe's first-ever environmental protection specialist. Reporter Hillary Rosner caught up with him in Boulder, Colo., to discuss the history of the mine fight and the implications of the victory. Check out what Padilla has to say, only on the Grist Magazine website.