Land Back News Roundup
One goal but many tactics
The demand for “LandBack” is not wishful thinking, or some far-off utopian vision; it’s a process we can help grow through many different kinds of action. In this occasional series at Unsettling, we take a look at recent examples of land return and other events shaping the terrain in which land return and reclamation can take place.
This month’s collection of stories demonstrates the many means by which land is being reclaimed and returned. From diligent pushes by tribes through the courts or through complicated and slow action through federal agencies; from return of land by foundations or private owners, to outright purchase, or to purchase via partnership with land trusts—the tactics for reclaiming land, despite the many obstacles, are many.
Land Return Despite Governmental Incompetence
Native News Online documents the inability of various governmental agencies to fully make good on a promise to deed land to Native Hawaiians as mandated by law in 1920. Land was instead used by the federal government for other purposes, and another law in 1955 was passed to transfer “surplus” federal land into the the Hawaiian Homes Land Trust in exchange for what was illegitimately taken. However, 80-acres—of 1500 inappropriately put to other uses—were recently set aside from this transfer for homesteads for Native Hawaiians. Native News took note of the inadequacy of the effort in their headline: “Interior Dept. Land Transfer Makes Small Dent in Massive Waitlist of Native Hawaiians Waiting to Get Land Back.”
In June, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed that a 1.4 million acre parcel belongs to the Yakama Reservation, and not to Klickitat County, WA. The parcel has been under dispute—the story includes maps and meeting minutes from government-to-government negotiations both disappearing—but once again a court confirmed that the Treaty of 1855 places the land known as Tract D, near Mt. Adams, within the border of the Yakama Reservation. More at Indianz.com.
Land Return Despite Governmental Malevolence
Tribal Business News reported in June that the proposed Department of Interior budget for 2022 could have positive results for tribes attempting to consolidate landholdings:
The president’s fiscal year 2022 budget request makes historic investments that will help Indian Country build back better and lay the foundation for shared growth and prosperity for decades to come,” Bryan Newland, principal deputy assistant secretary of Indian Affairs, told tribal leaders in a conference call on June 3. “The overall increase for the president’s budget request for Indian Affairs is $723 million.”
Newland, the former chairman of the Bay Mills Indian Community, said the budget request contains “significant investments that strengthen tribal control over homelands,” including a $150 million increase for land consolidation efforts in Indian Country regions that continue to have fractionated ownership resulting from the General Allotment Act of 1887, which divvied much reservation land to many individual tribal members. The problem was compounded as allotments were divided among the original allottees’ families in subsequent generations. Reduced fractionation potentially means better ability for tribes and Indian citizens to use the divided lands for economic development and other opportunities.
For some context in understanding the issue of fractionated ownership and its negative effects, here’s one resource on the General Allotment Act and its negative impacts on agriculture. Basically, the Act was one of the many destructive assimilationist strategies used to intentionally erode Indigeneous culture and control of the land, and putting money in the budget to help correct the matter over 130 years later is nice, but not exactly timely or in proportion to the damage done.1
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Buy the Land Back
In late spring, the Nisqually Indian Tribe and Nisqually Land Trust anounced that they are doubling the size of their community forest; the acquired land includes critical salmon habitat on the primary tributary to the Nisqually River. Read more at The Olympian.
As mentioned in our last news roundup and as widely reported in regional news at the end of July, the Nez Perce have returned to Am’sáaxpa, their land along the Wallowa River. They were forced from their by the U.S. Army in 1877 despite existing treaties and later denied access for hunting and fishing by white settlers. The tribe purchased the land earlier this year and returned with a ceremonial parade last Thursday.
On Thursday, more than 150 Nez Perce (Niimiipuu) people returned and blessed part of their homeland, a hundred years after the U.S Army drove them from the Wallowa Valley in eastern Oregon. #LandBack bit.ly/3xkC4uS
Here’s a short video from the Statesman Journal in Salem where Nez Perce Vice Chairman Shannon Wheeler talks about the return, and more coverage and photos over at The Seattle Times.
Further north, the Heiltsuk Nation purchased the Shearwater Resort and Marina, which has operated on Heiltsuk territory for 70 years. The Vancouver Sun spoke with elected chief council Marilyn Slett about the acquisition:
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to celebrate something with the (COVID-19) pandemic, the grief we are experiencing over the unmarked graves (at the residential schools) — it’s been a really hard time in our community,” said Slett.
But the purchase of the resort and marina for $12.7 million, made possible using funds secured through a reconciliation agreement signed with the Canadian government, and protocol deals with the Widsten family, is a step toward reconciliation in action, and a reason to feel celebratory and hopeful, said Slett.
“We as a Nation are leaders in reconciliation, and we have a process that we have defined as haíɫcístut, which means to turn something around and make it right again.”
Or Just Give it Back2
Land held by a family foundation in northern Maine has been returned to the Pebscot Nation. The website Mainebiz reports that the foundation, along with a large number of land trusts, are part of First Light, “a coalition working to develop arrangements for sharing, returning and co-managing ancestral lands in Maine.” First Light describes themselves as “a bridge between conservation organizations and Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Micmac Communities who seek to expand Wabanaki access and relationship to land.” More on their website.
Have any news stories on land return you think others should know about? Send them over to unsettling@substack.com. Help build momentum for land return by sharing this post:
Seems that the jury’s still out on whether making administration officials say “build back better” whenever they speak in public is also intentionally malevolent, but my personal feeling is, absolutely. Biden, why such cruelty?
Pretty much I get Midnight Oil in my head any time I write some variation of these words—let’s give it back, just give it back, etc. For the uninitiated: