LAND BACK RESOURCES
LAND BACK, LAND RIGHTS, AND JURISDICTION
Our movements have had a profound impact. Increasingly, settler descendents who hold legal title to land are committing themselves to justice through giving land back. We are seeing more legal cases over stolen land being won; more non-Indigenous organizations reaching out to learn from, and partner with Indigenous Nations to support Land Back; and more action being taken by Indigenous families and collectives to liberate our lands from the entanglement and dispossession caused by the Dawes Allotment Act or other strategies of dispossession.
US BASED INDIGENOUS LAND RESOURCES
US Department of Interior Land Buy Back (Fee into Trust process)
https://www.doi.gov/buybackprogram
Indian Land Tenure Foundation:
Support to navigate ownership, regulation, estate planning, legal resources, education, grant resources.
Indian Land Capital Company
Recovery, management, jurisdiction over alienated tribal land, consolidating undivided interests in land with fractionated ownership. Elimination of “checkerboarding” (mixed patterns of land ownership and jurisdictions) on reservations. Native Owned Community Development Financial Institution offering loans and support for land acquisition, and investment into work that cares for the land.
First Nations Development Institute Stewarding Native Lands Program
Knowledge sharing and partnership for Indigenous land care
https://www.firstnations.org/our-programs/stewarding-native-lands/
Native American Rights Fund
Legal Support for Land Back initiatives
ADVOCACY/PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS
First Light Learning Journey
First Light is a collaboration in Maine between hundreds of leaders, 65 organizations and Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Mi’kmaq Communities to re-learn history, recenter Indigenous voice and to return land, resources and power.
https://firstlightlearningjourney.net
Trust for Public Land
TPL has partnered with Indigenous Nations to support Land Back.
Nature Conservancy Indigenous Lands and Communities Program
Nature Conservancy partners to support Land Back in the US and Canada
Nature United Canada
Nature United partners to support Land Back in Canada
LAND TRUST INFORMATION AND ORGANIZATIONS
Land trusts have been used successfully as a tool to achieve Land Back off of reservation or reserve territories.
Land Trust Alliance
Leading organization supporting the development of land trusts, including detailed development content.
Land Trust Practical Details from First Light
https://firstlightlearningjourney.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/LTA-accreditation-indicators.pdf
Grounded Solutions Network
They have a great technical startup manual
Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust
A Community and Conservation hybrid model land trust, with resources, education, and support.
Native American Land Conservancy
An Intertribal Conservation Land Trust in Southern California
Native Land Conservancy
Intertribal Conservation Land Trust on East Coast, US
Native Conservancy
Alaskan Indigenous Native land trust; land protection, community development
https://www.nativeconservancy.org