The haunting decisions made by the US military remain visible today along a constellation of current environmental catastrophes and struggles. During World War II, 25,000 barrels of DDT was haphazardly dumped to the seafloor between Catalina island and just off the coast of Long Beach, California, where the AAAS conference will be gathering. Also during WWII, in Hawai‘i, the US military seized and devastated the island of Kaho‘olawe for military exercises meant to train various branches of the military to recapture islands from the Japanese military. The US military at this time, also created the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, meant to hide and preserve an enormous fuel source for the US Navy in Pearl Harbor. Considered an engineering marvel at the time, in 2021, 27,000 gallons of jet fuel leaked into the aquifer of the island contaminating the island’s water source and harming families. Currently, the people of Guahan are fighting to protect Ritidian from the US military who plans to use this sacred area for land from Live Fire Training. This could have devastating effects, including contamination of the island’s water source. This panel faces the work of growing non-extractive relations to the planet by following Native efforts to restore connections between above-ground river systems and underground aquifers; history and futurity; wealth and care. In this sense, our papers “follow the water” to alternative economies, temporalities, and epistemologies.