Going Home: How the land back movement is reclaiming ancestral lands.

The Land Back movement reflects the global efforts of Indigenous people to reclaim ancestral territories and sovereignty over public lands. Through a combination of military force, broken treaties, and discriminatory policies, Native communities have been stripped of 99% of their historical land base in the U.S., reduced from nearly 2.3 billion acres to just 56 million acres today. Here are some ways this has been codified in state and federal policy:

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 led to the forced relocation of southeastern tribes like the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Nations along the brutal Trail of Tears, where thousands died during the journey westward. In the Great Plains, the U.S. government repeatedly violated treaties like the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, seizing the Black Hills from the Great Sioux Nation after gold was discovered. The Dawes Act of 1887 dispossessed tribes by breaking up communally held reservation lands into individual allotments, many of which were then sold to non-Native settlers. Military campaigns and massacres, like the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 where U.S. troops killed hundreds of peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho people, were used to terrorize Indigenous communities and drive them onto increasingly smaller reservations. The California Gold Rush led to state-sponsored genocide of Native peoples, with the state paying bounties for Indian scalps and heads in the 1850s and forcing survivors onto small rancherias.

Unlike what some might assume, the movement doesn't seek to displace current residents from their homes. Instead, it focuses on returning decision-making power to Indigenous communities and addressing the historical injustices of colonization that led to their dispossession. Here are four examples of what land back work looks like in action:

In 2020, the Esselen Tribe regained 1,200 acres of their ancestral homeland in Big Sur, California, after 250 years of displacement. Through a $4.5 million grant and partnership with Western Rivers Conservancy, the land, which includes sacred sites and endangered species, is now being used for traditional ceremonies and ecological conservation. The Bois Forte Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, in partnership with The Conservation Fund, the Indian Land Tenure Foundation and the Indian Land Capital Company, purchased 28,089 acres of ancestral land within the Nett Lake and Deer Creek sections of the Bois Forte Reservation. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) regained control of the National Bison Range in Montana in 2020. This 18,800-acre wildlife refuge, which was taken from them in 1908, is being used for bison conservation efforts while expanding public education about their cultural connections to the land. In Maine, the Penobscot Nation has worked with conservation groups to reclaim over 100,000 acres of their ancestral territory along the Penobscot River since 2000, helping restore both tribal sovereignty and the river's ecological health, including critical salmon habitats. In South Dakota, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe reacquired 28,000 acres of land in 2020. This prairie land is now being used for buffalo conservation, food sovereignty initiatives, and teaching traditional land management practices to tribal youth.

Indigenous communities’ approach to land stewardship goes beyond simple ownership, emphasizing a deep, complex relationship with the environment. As tribes reclaim more of their ancestral lands, they're leading innovative climate adaptation efforts and restoration projects, demonstrating how traditional Indigenous knowledge can help create a more sustainable future.

Support the work of NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building and narrative change. You can make a donation or follow the action items for their specific initiatives. Learn whose ancestral land you live on and pay real estate taxes to those Indigenous nations. Many tribes and Indigenous organizations have established voluntary land tax programs where residents can contribute a portion of their income or property value to support Indigenous land reclamation efforts, like the Shuumi Land Trust in the East Bay of Northern California. Support Indigenous-led land conservation efforts and organizations working to protect sacred sites and expand tribal land holdings. This could mean donating to Indigenous land trusts, advocating for the return of public lands to tribal management, or backing specific land return campaigns. Call on your local, state and federal representatives to honor treaties, expand tribal sovereignty, and return public lands to tribal nations.

The latest on the Land Back movement, in which Native American tribes reclaim land. Two reporters take a look at where it’s worked and where it hasn’t at reservations in Minnesota. NPR >

The Land Back movement is also about foodways. When Native peoples' land was stolen, they lost important hunting and fishing grounds and myriad places to gather and prepare food. Civil Eats >

Tribal lands were stolen. What happens when those ancestral territories are returned? The Land Back movement is long-overdue justice. It’s also a climate solution. Vox >

The Land Back Movement Unravels Manifest Destiny. Across Indian Country, tribal nations are buying back their land one parcel at a time. Sierra Club >

On Vancouver Island, Land Back Looks Like Going Home. Indigenous-led land back efforts are underway on Canada’s Vancouver Island while the land’s original stewards protect forests from logging. Atmos >

Land Rematriation: A Conversation with Cyndi Suarez, Donald Soctomah, Darren Ranco, Mali Obomsawin, Gabriela Alcalde, and Kate Dempsey. Kate Dempsey, state director of The Nature Conservancy in Maine, discuss the future of Tribal sovereignty, Land Back, and rematriation of the planet. NPQ >

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