Cliff is a Tsimshian (Kitsumkalum/Kitselas) and Nuu-chah-nulth (Ahousaht) scholar who researches and teaches Indigenous governance, political economy, and resource management. He is interested in how Indigenous communities navigate/adopt/resist mainstream capitalism while working to sustain their unique cultural identities and worldviews. Cliff is particularly interested in how Indigenous communities and leaders continue to assert agency within the confines of settler colonial politics and economics. He has recently published on Indigenous water relations and Indigenous community responses to the Trans Mountain pipeline.