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Land Back movement gains ground, but full tribal control still out of reach

Black Elk Peak in South Dakota's Black Hills is sacred to the Lakota as the place where Oglala Lakota holy man Nicholas Black Elk (Hehaka Sapa) had his first vision at age 9.
Black Elk Peak in South Dakota's Black Hills is sacred to the Lakota as the place where Oglala Lakota holy man Nicholas Black Elk (Hehaka Sapa) had his first vision at age 9.

Land Back is a global, Indigenous-led movement advocating for the return of stolen lands.

While Indigenous communities have long engaged in that fight, “Land Back” as a meme began to gain popularity in 2019.

It now describes a decentralized international movement that emphasizes treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, climate justice and cultural revival.

“Land Back is like a prism with many facets to it,” said Alvin Warren, a former lieutenant governor of the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico who has spent decades advocating for the restoration and protection of Indigenous lands.

“For me, within the paradigm of the United States legal system and land tenure system, it absolutely means the restoration of full title to Indigenous people of a particular piece of land that is part of their original homeland.”

And it doesn’t stop with the transfer of legal title.

“It’s about reviving the land-based aspects of our ways of life,” he said. “It could be agriculture, it could be subsistence hunting, it could be gathering things. It is about reuniting, reconnecting us with our homeland, about undoing the many layers of separation and disconnection from our homelands that has been the goal of colonization in this country and in other parts of the world.”

Nick Tilsen, an Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, gained national attention in July 2020 for blockading the road to Mount Rushmore ahead of a visit by then-President Donald Trump.

Shortly afterward, the NDN Collective activist launched a #LandBack campaign for “the reclamation of everything stolen from the original peoples.”

“When they [the federal government] took the land, they took everything from our people,” Tilsen said. “They took our governance structures. They took our culture. They took our language. They tried to destroy the familial structure of our people, our ability to make decisions over our food systems and our education systems.”

Tilsen believes the U.S. government should return all public lands, including the Black Hills, which the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty designated for the “absolute and undisturbed use and occupation” of Sioux Bands, today known as the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires).

That treaty was nullified without the tribe’s consent in the Indian Appropriations Bill of 1876 after a government and scientific expedition confirmed the presence of gold in the hills.

Is getting that land back a realistic goal?

James Swan, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe in South Dakota, doesn’t think so.

“It’s a pipe dream,” the founder of the grassroots Indigenous rights group United Urban Warrior Society, said. “But let’s say the U.S. government does return the Black Hills. Then what?”

Swan points out that tribes are not truly independent.

“They're part of the U.S. government,” he said. “A tribal chairman might be elected by the tribe, but he can't do anything without the tribal superintendent’s permission, and the superintendent works for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.”

This 1911 Interior Department poster advertises Indian land for sale in 12 states. It featured a photo of prominent Yanktonai warrior Padani-Kokipa-Sni (Not Afraid of Pawnee) taken around 1900 by Smithsonian photographer DeLancey Walker Gill.
This 1911 Interior Department poster advertises Indian land for sale in 12 states. It featured a photo of prominent Yanktonai warrior Padani-Kokipa-Sni (Not Afraid of Pawnee) taken around 1900 by Smithsonian photographer DeLancey Walker Gill.

Fragmented land ownership

In 1887, the government allotted some treaty lands to Native American heads of household. The remaining land, over 36 million hectares, was sold to settlers or granted to newly formed states to generate funds to support public institutions such as schools, jails or hospitals. States were allowed to sell off some of their trust land “for no less than ten dollars an acre.”

Grist and High Country News recently reported that states today hold more than 809,000 hectares of surface and subsurface land on Indian reservations.

A public lands sign is posted at Virtue Flat off-highway vehicle area in Eastern Oregon.
A public lands sign is posted at Virtue Flat off-highway vehicle area in Eastern Oregon.

Federal oversight

The U.S. government legally owns 21 million hectares of reservation land that it holds in trust for the benefit of tribes and their members.

Federal rules limit what tribes can do with that trust land — they can’t sell, lease or transfer it without Interior Department approval and must follow strict environmental rules for many projects.

Within that trust land are restricted-fee lands that are owned by individual Native Americans or tribes but cannot be sold or transferred without federal approval and are exempt from state or local land-use regulations.

FILE - In this Aug. 26, 2020, photo, a sign marking the boundary of the Crow Indian Reservation stands near Hardin, Montana. The reservation shrank from 38 million acres in 1851 to its present size of 2.2 million acres.
FILE - In this Aug. 26, 2020, photo, a sign marking the boundary of the Crow Indian Reservation stands near Hardin, Montana. The reservation shrank from 38 million acres in 1851 to its present size of 2.2 million acres.

There are also fee-simple lands within those reservations that are owned outright by individuals or tribes.

“The fee-simple owner is the absolute total owner,” said Robert Miller, a law professor at Arizona State University and an expert in federal Indian law. “You have all the rights of ownership. Leave it to whoever you want. Sell it to whoever you want for a dollar or a million dollars.”

Previously, tribes were advised to purchase reservation land under a fee-simple title.

“But the Supreme Court ruled in 1992 and 1998 that if a tribe holds land under [a] fee-simple title, the state can impose annual taxes on it,” Miller said. “This has led tribes to request that the Interior Department take their fee-simple land into trust to avoid state interference.”

Pathways to land back

In December 2012, the Interior Department launched the Land Buy-Back Program, which purchased and restored to tribal trust more than 1.2 million hectares of land in 15 states over 10 years.

“The Land Buy-Back Program’s progress puts the power back in the hands of tribal communities to determine how their lands are used — from conservation to economic development projects,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said ahead of the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington.

But some Native Americans are skeptical about the program.

“It is not about returning lost lands and putting them into trust for Tribes,” Todd Hall (Hidatsa) wrote in Buffalo’s Fire, an independent news platform run by the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance. “It is about dispossessing Individual Indians of their landownership rights and converting those rights to the collective ownership of the Tribal governments which were enacted by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.”

Today, tribes across the U.S. continue to buy fractional interests in trust or restricted land from willing sellers, often with help from conservancy groups and private landowners.

In September, the Western Rivers Conservancy transferred a 188-hectare former private cattle ranch to the Graton Rancheria in California for “permanent conservation and stewardship.”

Individuals also make private donations of land. In October 2018, Iowa citizen Rich Snyder voluntarily signed over land he owned in southern Colorado to the Ute Tribe.

In June, California announced it would return 1,133 hectares of ancestral land to the Shasta Indian Nation. Montana is currently considering the return of 11,800 hectares of trust land to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on the Flathead Reservation in exchange for federal public lands outside of the reservation.

A University of Montana study in 2023 identified 44 laws placing federal public lands into tribal trust. Many, however, upheld existing rights such as access, grazing, mining or water use. Others stipulate that the land remain “forever wild” or be used only for “traditional purposes” such as hunting or holding ceremonies.

There are also legal routes to getting land back, especially with the U.S. Supreme Court establishing a key precedent in the landmark McGirt v. Oklahoma case, which reaffirmed that a large area of eastern Oklahoma still belongs to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

“I predict there will be 30 to 50 years of litigation over every little issue if the state, feds and tribes don't cooperate,” Miller said.

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Native American tribe closer to acquiring more land in Arizona after decades of delay

FILE - Navajo and Hopi arts and crafts are promoted on the facade of a storefront in Winslow, Arizona, Oct. 15, 2024.
FILE - Navajo and Hopi arts and crafts are promoted on the facade of a storefront in Winslow, Arizona, Oct. 15, 2024.

Federal officials have joined with the state of Arizona to begin fulfilling a settlement agreement that was reached with the Hopi Tribe nearly three decades ago, marking what tribal officials described as a historic day.

Government attorneys filed condemnation documents on Friday to transfer dozens of square kilometers of state land into trust for the Hopi. The tribe will compensate the state nearly $4 million for more than 80 square kilometers of land near Winslow.

It could mark the first of more transfers of land into trust to help eliminate the checkerboard of ownership that characterizes much of the lands used by the tribe for ranching in northeastern Arizona.

A long time coming

Friday's filing was born out of the 1996 passage of the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Settlement Act, which ratified an agreement between the Hopi and federal government that set conditions for taking land into trust for the tribe.

The wrangling over land in northeastern Arizona has been bitter, pitting the Hopi and the Navajo Nation against one another for generations. The federal government failed in its attempt to have the tribes share land and after years of escalating conflict, Congress in 1974 divided the area and ordered tribal members to leave each other's reservations.

The resulting borders meant the Navajo Nation — the country's largest reservation at close to 70,000 square kilometers — surrounded the nearly 6,500-square-kilometer Hopi reservation.

Since the 1996 settlement, the Hopi Tribe has purchased private land and sought to take neighboring state lands into trust in hopes of consolidating property for the tribe's benefit.

A historic day

There have been many roadblocks along the way, including in 2018 when the tribe sought the support of local governments in northern Arizona to back a proposed transfer for land south of the busy Interstate 40 corridor. Those efforts were stymied by the inclusion of national forest tracts in the Flagstaff area.

Hopi Chairman Tim Nuvangyaoma said in a statement Friday that he was grateful for everyone who worked to make the condemnation filing a reality and that the timing for this historic moment was fitting.

"Within Hopi, it is our time of the soyal'ang ceremony — the start of the New Year and the revitalization of life," he said.

Gov. Katie Hobbs, who first visited the Hopi reservation in 2023, acknowledged that the tribe has been fighting for its rights for decades and that politicians of the past had refused to hear the voices of tribal communities.

"Every Arizonan should have an opportunity to thrive and a space to call home, and this agreement takes us one step closer to making those Arizona values a reality," she said Friday.

More transfers and economic opportunities

In November, the Navajo Nation signed a warranty deed to take into trust a parcel of land near Flagstaff as part of the federal government's outstanding obligations to support members of that tribe who were forcibly relocated as a result of the Navajo-Hopi dispute.

Navajo leaders are considering building a casino on the newly acquired land, saying such a project would provide significant economic benefits.

For the Hopi, bringing more land into trust also holds the promise of more economic opportunities. The state lands near Winslow that are part of the condemnation filing are interspersed with Hopi-owned lands and have long been leased to the tribe for ranching and agricultural purposes, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Federal officials said Friday's filing is the first of an anticipated series of condemnation actions that ultimately would result in the transfer of more than 1440 square kilometers of state land into trust for the Hopi Tribe.

Media report: More than 3,100 Native American children died in US boarding schools

FILE - A makeshift memorial for the dozens of Indigenous children who died more than a century ago while attending a boarding school that was once located nearby is growing under a tree at a public park in Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 1, 2021.
FILE - A makeshift memorial for the dozens of Indigenous children who died more than a century ago while attending a boarding school that was once located nearby is growing under a tree at a public park in Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 1, 2021.

At least 3,104 Native American children died in boarding schools in the United States, taken from their families to be forcibly assimilated, The Washington Post reported on Sunday, with its estimate three times higher than that of the American government.

In these establishments, some of which were religious and which existed from the beginning of the 19th century to the 1970s, many children suffered physical, psychological or sexual violence, according to a recent government report which estimated that at least 973 students died there.

In late October, U.S. President Joe Biden apologized to Native American peoples, calling the atrocities "a sin that stains our souls."

According to The Washington Post, which conducted a year-long investigation, 3,104 students lost their lives in these schools between 1828 and 1970, in what the newspaper describes as "a dark chapter in American history that has long been ignored and largely covered up."

And the toll would actually be much higher according to historians, adds the newspaper.

The Washington Post says it has "determined that more than 800 of these students were buried in or near cemeteries at the schools where they attended, underscoring that, as in many cases, the children's bodies were never returned to their families or tribes."

According to documents seen by the daily, "The causes of death included infectious diseases, malnutrition and accidents."

Dozens of Native American students have died under suspicious circumstances, the article continues, "and in some cases, documents show indications of abuse or mistreatment that likely led to the children's deaths."

The boarding schools "were not schools" but "prison camps, work camps," Judi gaiashkibos, director of the Nebraska Commission on Native Americans and whose relatives were sent there, told the newspaper.

The Joe Biden administration has implemented a series of measures to support Native American nations and improve relations with the federal state.

In the United States, reservations now administered by Native Americans are predominantly poor, with high suicide and overdose rates.

In neighboring Canada, where the same practice of residential schools for young indigenous people existed, the country has also opened its eyes in recent years to this dark page of history.

Native American news roundup December 8-14, 2024

U.S. President Joe Biden is greeted by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland before he delivers remarks at a Tribal Nations Summit at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 9, 2024.
U.S. President Joe Biden is greeted by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland before he delivers remarks at a Tribal Nations Summit at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 9, 2024.

Tribal Nations Summit stresses federal responsibilities

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris showcased historic investments in Indian Country with speeches and a 96-page progress report at this week's White House Tribal Nations Summit.

As VOA reported, Biden announced a new national monument on the site of the Carlisle Indian boarding school in Pennsylvania, which served as the model for hundreds of residential schools that forced children to abandon their traditions and languages.

Another move announced at the summit is a 10-Year National Plan on Native Language Revitalization to invest $16.7 billion to protect and restore Native languages in all 50 states. Today, fewer than 200 Indigenous languages are still spoken, mainly by elders, and experts warn that if no action is taken, only 20 will remain by 2050. The plan will establish a new Office of Native Language Revitalization to coordinate efforts and manage funding.

The administration announced new guidance for federal employees on treaty and tribal consultation obligations, as well as strategies for addressing the chronic underfunding of tribal programs.

It also released further guidance on federal support for tribes facing natural disasters, public health emergencies, and climate-induced relocation challenges.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland present President Joe Biden with a wool blanket designed by Laguna Pueblo artist Pat Pruitt at the 2024 White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP/Susan Walsh)
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland present President Joe Biden with a wool blanket designed by Laguna Pueblo artist Pat Pruitt at the 2024 White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP/Susan Walsh)

Biden honored with 'Lightning and Thunder'

At the summit, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland gifted President Biden a traditional wool blanket made by Eighth Generation, a Seattle-based company owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe.

The blanket was designed by artist and metalsmith Pat Pruitt, who, like Haaland, is a member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. Pruitt named the design "Lightning and Thunder."

"I had no idea my blanket had been selected until friends sent me photos of the event," Pruitt said. "It is both humbling and meaningful to witness this recognition. As a former tribal leader, I deeply understand the significance of serving the people, as well as the hard work and sacrifices that come with it."

In many Native traditions, gifting a blanket is a gesture of respect for leadership and milestone achievements.

Double-crested cormorants sit in their nesting colony in a tree on Lake Andes National Wildlife Refuge in South Dakota.
Double-crested cormorants sit in their nesting colony in a tree on Lake Andes National Wildlife Refuge in South Dakota.

Texas high court to decide religious freedom case

The Texas Supreme Court was set to rule this week on whether the city of San Antonio's temporary closure of a park and plans to remove trees violate religious freedom.

For several years, the city of San Antonio has been fighting cormorants, large migratory birds that nest in the city's Breckenridge Park and cause damage to vegetation. City contractors have used chemical sprays, heavy pruning and aerial explosives to disrupt bird rookeries, but these methods failed.

Matilde Torres and Gary Perez, members of the Lipan Apache Native American Church, sued the city last summer, arguing the site is spiritually significant to their culture as it connects to their creation story. They say city plans would violate religious freedoms guaranteed by the Texas constitution.

The Lipan Apache is not a federally recognized tribe but was recognized by Texas in 2019.

The case made its way to the top court in Texas, which was expected to rule on Monday. At the time of this writing, a decision was still pending.

Read more.

Wisconsin tribe agrees to end predatory lending in Minnesota

The Wisconsin-based Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (LDF) has agreed to stop short-term, high-interest loan operations in Minnesota and to forgive over $1 million in outstanding loans. LDF had been providing short-term loans since 2012, including through a dozen online loan operations.

A ProPublica investigation this year revealed that the tribe charged interest rates as high as 800%, violating Minnesota's usury laws. The investigation says many of those loans ended up devastating borrowers across the country.

"I borrowed $1100 and agreed to pay $272 bi-weekly, with the thought that I would have that paid off in under 4 months," one borrower complained. "To my shock, I logged on to my account shortly after receiving the funds and my balance due is over $4000!"

Minnesota sued the tribe's lenders, which led to this settlement stopping that lending and canceling over $1 million in outstanding loans.

"My approach to this case and other tribal lending is to stop violations and harm while also preserving and respecting the tribes' sovereign status," stated Attorney General Ellison. "I am grateful for the defendants' cooperation in this investigation and agreement to cease further lending and collection activity in Minnesota."

Read more.

Biden designates national monument at site of Carlisle Indian school

Native American attendees listen as Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the 2024 White House Tribal Nations Summit, on Dec. 9, 2024, at the Department of the Interior in Washington.
Native American attendees listen as Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the 2024 White House Tribal Nations Summit, on Dec. 9, 2024, at the Department of the Interior in Washington.

President Joe Biden has created a new national monument on the grounds of a former Indian boarding school in Pennsylvania, which served as the blueprint for hundreds of similar institutions across the United States.

“I want everyone to know,” Biden said. “I don't want people forgetting, 10, 20, 30, 50 years from now.”

Indian children from 140 tribes were taken from their families, tribes and homelands and forced to spend years at the school in the borough of Carlisle, he noted.

“It was wrong, and by making the Carlisle Indian School a national monument, we make clear that [that's] what great nations do. We don't erase history. We acknowledge it. We learn from and we remember, so we never repeat it again.”

Postcard showing students guarding main entrance, Carlisle Industrial Indian School, Carlisle, Pa. The brick and marble gates were built by Carlisle students in 1910 and still stand today.
Postcard showing students guarding main entrance, Carlisle Industrial Indian School, Carlisle, Pa. The brick and marble gates were built by Carlisle students in 1910 and still stand today.

Biden told the 2024 Tribal Nations Summit in Washington Monday that the monument will encompass 10 hectares (24.5 acres) inside what is today the Carlisle Army Barracks, including historic buildings and structures that once made up the school’s campus. These will include the brick and marble gateposts at the school’s entrance, which Carlisle students built by hand in 1910.

The U.S. Army will maintain operational control over the site, which is now home to the U.S. Army War College. The Army will collaborate with the National Park Service to oversee the planning and management of the new national monument, consulting with federally recognized tribes to ensure that the monument accurately reflects historic and contemporary impacts of the boarding school system on tribal members and communities.

“This addition to the national park system that recognizes the troubled history of U.S. and Tribal relations is among the giant steps taken in recent years to honor Tribal sovereignty and recognize the ongoing needs of Native communities, repair past damage and make progress toward healing,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams, a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Northeast Oregon.

FILE - President Joe Biden and Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis speak at the Gila Crossing Community School, Oct. 25, 2024, in Laveen, Ariz.
FILE - President Joe Biden and Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis speak at the Gila Crossing Community School, Oct. 25, 2024, in Laveen, Ariz.

The announcement comes just six weeks after Biden’s visit to the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. There, he gave a long-awaited apology to Native Americans for the boarding school era, calling it “one the most consequential things I've ever had an opportunity to do in my whole career as president of the United States.”

Earlier Monday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland opened the summit with a speech focusing on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative she launched in May 2021.

The initiative resulted in a two-volume report that documented the history of the school system, accounting for 417 known schools and confirming more than 900 child deaths.
The initiative also included The Road to Healing, in which Haaland and Assistant Interior Secretary Bryan Newland traveled to 12 Native communities, giving survivors and their descendants an opportunity to share their boarding school experiences.

FILE - Rosalie Whirlwind Soldier talks about the abuse she suffered at a Native American boarding school on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in Mission, S.D., Oct. 15, 2022.
FILE - Rosalie Whirlwind Soldier talks about the abuse she suffered at a Native American boarding school on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in Mission, S.D., Oct. 15, 2022.

“So many of you spoke bravely and forthright[ly] … about the horrors you endured or the trauma that was passed down over generations. Those stories must continue to be told,” Haaland told the summit leaders.

As part of the initiative, the Interior Department engaged the National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition to conduct video interviews with boarding school survivors to create a permanent oral history collection.

Haaland announced that the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will partner to preserve their accounts for the public.

Biden memorializes painful past of Native Americans

Biden memorializes painful past of Native Americans
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday presided over his final White House Tribal Nations Summit by reaching into the nation’s dark past and establishing a national monument to honor the suffering of thousands of Native children and their families in federal boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.

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