Teaching About the Land Back Movement

Above: Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a women-led Bay Area collective working to return land to Indigenous peoples celebrates a recent City of Berkeley vote to return sacred land to the Lisjan Nation.

Last week, the City of Berkeley voted to rematriate a portion of land to the Lisjan Nation (Ohlone peoples), which follows the lead of the City of Oakland. The West Berkeley Shellmound was likely the first Native settlement in the area and dates back 5,700 years. On the other side of the continent, people who are the descendants of the first settler-colonists in New England are raising funds to buy and return local land to the Nipmuc peoples and members of the Hassanamisco Band of the Nipmuc are advocating for the rematriation of the Lampson Brook Farm in Western Massachusetts.

Decolonization is not a metaphor; the Land Back Movement is "literally" working to return Native homelands and ensure that the U.S. and Canadian governments respect treaties and recognize when treaties were unjust with Indigenous nations. 

Above: No DAPL protests in 2016.

The Land Back Movement gained momentum during the Dakota Access pipeline protests/Water Protectors Movement with the term "Land Back" being coined in 2017 by Kainai tribal citizen Aaron Tailfeathers (the hashtag #LandBack has become popular on social media). Yet, the movement for Indigenous people to have their land returned to them is as old as the first taking of Native lands by settler-colonists. For instance, in 1659, Nipmuc leader Tantamous legally defended his land from white settlers in Massachusetts Bay Colony who attempted to take it.  

While the term repatriation is often used to described the returning of someone to their home country, Indigenous women activists have coined the term rematriation to describe the returning of the stolen sacred sites to the mother. As a result, a growing number of governments (mostly at the local level, such as the City of Boston returning the Mattapan Rhyolite Quarry to the Massachusett people) but also including some federal decisions) and private citizens are finding ways to return land to local Native nations and tribes (there is also a similar movement to return land to descendants of enslaved Black people and Black families that have had their land taken by the government). Yet, much of this work is being done by Native nations and tribal governments, who are buying back their own lands (including the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans here in Massachusetts). This post was created to help give social studies resources to teach about the past related to this present-day justice movement and consider potential ways that governments may start to right the wrongs.

Above: Native protesters outside Mt. Rushmore during Donald Trump's visit in 2020. 

Teaching About the Land Back Movement

In having students learn about the Land Back Movement, one potential inquiry question to ask is: "How should the government return stolen land to Indigenous peoples?" Students could read about the history of treaties and Native sovereignty in the U.S., research different options of rematriation, and design potential plans for the national, state, or local governments. 

Native lands have been rematriated in several different ways: land title purchases by nations and tribes, donations from private landowners, transfers from land conservancies, or local, state, or federal legislation/actions. For instance, students may argue that cities and towns should return municipal land to local nations and tribes. Other students may argue that the federal government should return land to local nations and tribes through expansion of the current Interior Department program. Yet, other students may argue that descendants of settler-colonists should return land to Native peoples and donate money to local nations and tribes, so they can buy back land. Still, some students may conceive new ways to seek land justice for local nation and tribes.

Below (and linked above) are some resources that students could examine to help answer that questions.

Resources on Native Sovereignty and Broken Treaties

Key Vocabulary: Teaching & Learning About Native Americans (National Museum of the American Indian)

Native Land Digital (Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages mapping tool)

Nation to Nations (National Museum of the American Indian)

Tribal Sovereignty: History and the Law (Native American Caucus: California State Legislature) 

Tribal Nations & the United States: An Introduction (National Congress of American Indians)

Histories of Indigenous Sovereignty in Action: What is it and Why Does it Matter? (Organization of American Historians)

Why Treaties Matter (Minnesota Humanities Center) 

Broken Treaties With Native American Tribes: Timeline (History Channel)

In 1868, Two Nations Made a Treaty, the U.S. Broke It and Plains Indian Tribes are Still Seeking Justice (Smithsonian Magazine)

Indigenous Peoples Day Comes Amid a Reckoning Over Colonialism and Calls for Return of Native Land (The Conversation)

Resources on Current Rematriation Efforts 

The Land Back Movement Unravels Manifest Destiny (Sierra Club)

Rematriation Resource Guide (Sogorea Te’ Land Trust)

Returning the Land (The Fix) 

Rematriation  Returning the Sacred to the Mother (Rematriation/Haudenosaunee)

Rematriation Through Sustainable Food And Economic Systems (Eastern Woodlands Rematriation) 

How Returning Lands to Native Tribes Is Helping Protect Nature (Yale Environment 360)

Interior Department Land Buy-Back Program (U.S. Department of the Interior)

Land Recovery (Indian Land Tenure Foundation) 

 

Want to know more? Consider watching this short documentary by NDN Collective on the work of Lakota and other Indigenous activists fighting to have land returned to the Oceti Sakowin Nation.