Land Back

, 2024 The Land Back movement seeks to restore Indigenous political authority over unceded ancestral lands. Scholars from the Indigenous-run Yellowhead Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University describe it as a process of reclaiming Indigenous jurisdiction. Philosophy The NDN Collective describes the Land Back campaign as a metanarrative that ties together many different Indigenous organizations similar to the Black Lives Matter campaign. Land Back is a movement that advocates for the restoration of communal ownership of traditional and unceded Indigenous lands, while rejecting colonial concepts of real estate and private property. When Indigenous communities regain access to ancestral lands, they are empowered to re-engage with traditional foods, medicines, languages and cultural practices, and these activities promote community well-being and cultural continuity. In some cases Land Back promotes a land tax that seeks to collect revenue on people who are of non-indigenous origins. Methods In some cases, land is directly returned to Indigenous people when private landowners, municipalities, or governments give the land back to Indigenous tribes. This may take the form of a simple transaction within the colonial real estate framework. == Actions ==

In July 2020, activists from NDN Collective held a protest on a highway leading to Mount Rushmore, where President Donald Trump was to give a campaign speech. The site, known to the Sioux in English as "The Six Grandfathers," is on sacred, unceded land, subject to the Black Hills land claim. These protestors drafted the "Land Back Manifesto", which seeks "the reclamation of everything stolen from the original Peoples". Also in 2020, Haudenosaunee people from the Six Nations of the Grand River blockaded 1492 Land Back Lane to shut down a housing development on their unceded territory. On July 4, 2021, in Rapid City, South Dakota, a city very close to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, four people were arrested after climbing a structure downtown and hanging an upside-down US flag emblazoned with the words "Land Back". == Notable land restorations ==

The Land Back movement has witnessed numerous successful campaigns, culminating in the return of land to Indigenous stewardship. The following are a number of notable examples, but this list is not comprehensive. • The Wiyot people have lived for thousands of years on Duluwat Island, in Humboldt Bay on California's northern coast. The council transferred another in 2006. • The Mashpee Wampanoag have lived in Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island for thousands of years. In 2007, about of Massachusetts land was put into trust as a reservation for the tribe. Since then, a legal battle has left the tribe's status—and claim to the land—in limbo. He also donated a building in Sydney to help house Eskasoni's growing population. • In October 2018, the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, returned ancient burial site (the Great Marpole Midden) land back to the Musqueam people. The land is home to ancient remains of a Musqueam house site. • In 2019, the United Methodist Church gave of historic land back to the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma. • In July 2020, an organization of self-identified Esselen descendants purchased a near Big Sur, California, as part of a larger $4.5m deal. This acquisition, in historical Esselen lands, aims to protect old-growth forest and wildlife, and the Little Sur River. • Land on the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia was returned to the Tsartlip First Nation in December 2020. • Management of the National Bison Range was transferred from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service back to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in 2021. • In August 2022, the Red Cliff Chippewa in northern Wisconsin had of land along the Lake Superior shoreline returned to them from the Bayfield County government. This came after the tribe signed a 2017 memorandum of understanding with the county, acknowledging the Red Cliff Chippewa's desire to see their reservation boundaries restored in full. • In October 2022, a 1-acre site was returned to the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy by a private resident in Altadena, which marked the first time the Tongva had land in Los Angeles County in 200 years. • In 2024, the Government of British Columbia transferred the title of more than 200 islands off Canada's west coast to the Haida people, recognizing the nation's aboriginal land title throughout Haida Gwaii. • On March 15, 2024, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed deeds returning the land used as Upper Sioux Agency State Park in southwest Minnesota to the Upper Sioux Community. • In June 2024, a years-long collaboration in land stewardship between The Nature Conservancy and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community resulted in the restoration of 760 acres of forested land in Baraga County, Michigan, back into Indigenous hands. • On July 12, 2024, President Joe Biden signed the Winnebago Land Transfer Act into law, returning about 1,600 acres of land along the Missouri River in Nebraska to the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. • In late 2024, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians received a Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience Grant from NOAA to acquire 187 acres in northern Leelanau County, Michigan, on the coast of Grand Traverse Bay. The site, once and now again known as Mashkiigaki, "the place of medicines," was central to villages established by the Grand Traverse Band's Ojibwe and Odawa predecessors. • In 2025, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians purchased more than 2,000 acres of land near the Table Rocks preserve north of Medford, Oregon. • On February 10, 2025, the US Fish and Wildlife Service returned 680 acres of land in White Horse Hill National Game Preserve in Saint Michael, North Dakota to the Spirit Lake Tribe. • On March 21, 2025, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed legislation authorizing the transfer of ownership of Shabbona Lake State Park to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. • In June 2025, the land purchases to create the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community Forest were completed. Western Rivers Conservancy helped finance the purchases and create the protected area in cooperation with the Yurok Tribe. The land will now be managed by the Yurok Tribe in what is said to be the largest land back conservation deal to date. • On July 16, 2025, The NANA Regional Corporation, an Alaska Native corporation comprising 11 villages in Northwest Alaska, received nearly 28,000 acres from the Department of the Interior. • On September 22, 2025, Osage Nation reacquired Sugarloaf Mound, the oldest known Native structure in St. Louis, after a 17-year effort. • On October 31, 2025, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration returned 2 acres of land in Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin to the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, marking what officials are calling the first known return of Catholic-owned land to an Indigenous tribe as an act of reparations for Catholic-run American Indian boarding schools. • In December 2025, the Pacific Forest Trust returned nearly 900 acres of land bordering Yosemite National Park to the Southern Sierra Miwok Nation. • In February 2026, a parcel of land on Sea Otter Island near Cordova, Alaska was transferred to the Eyak Community Land Trust. • On February 26, 2026, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians officially regained ownership of the Nikwasi Mound after over 200 years, following a vote by the Franklin, North Carolina town council to return the land. == See also ==