Community initiatives link Indigenous land return and reparations efforts

Community leaders across the country are working to connect Indigenous sovereignty initiatives with reparations movements in an effort to strengthen both efforts, according to reporting by the Daily Yonder. One example is the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, led by Lucille Contreras, Lipan Apache. The project is restoring bison herds and Indigenous stewardship on land in Gonzalez County, Texas. Contreras reportedly purchased 77 acres in 2020 with a USDA new farmer-rancher loan, and the project’s herd has grown to 34 bison since the first eight were acquired in 2021. “All of Texas is traditionally buffalo territory,” Contreras told the Daily Yonder. “We invite people to attend the buffalo harvest and have had 400 guests.”

Organizations including the South Dakota-based NDN Collective are also supporting land return initiatives. Through its NDN Fund, the Chugach Regional Resources Commission in Seward, Alaska, secured a loan to purchase and expand the 1.52-acre home of the Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute, which conducts ocean restoration and marine research, according to the Daily Yonder. Nick Tilsen, Oglala Lakota and founder of NDN Collective, said the Land Back movement focuses on restoring Indigenous stewardship of land. “Sometimes indigenous ‘Land Back’ invokes fear that we are coming for individual people’s property rights and land, but that’s not what we are doing,” Tilsen was quoted as saying.