Native Land Conservancy, Land Trust Alliance announce new resource aimed at advancing Indigenous land access and return
Mashpee, Mass. — The Native Land Conservancy and the Land Trust Alliance are proud to announce a new resource designed to inspire new partnerships and advance Indigenous land access and return. The resource, entitled "Partnerships for Indigenous Land Access and Return: A Summary of Legal and Relational Pathways," is available on the Land Trust Alliance's Resource Center and the Initiatives page of the Native Land Conservancy website.
The report is a collaborative publication of the Native Land Conservancy, the Land Trust Alliance and Tahoma Peak Solutions, developed with the guidance of an advisory team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts with legal, conservation and land care expertise. It highlights practical strategies and solutions developed in partnership by land trusts, Tribes and Indigenous-led organizations, offering case studies, wisdom and lessons learned, as well as a collection of recommendations for continued learning.
For many Tribal Nations and people, reconnecting to the land is obstructed by the nuance, entanglements, confusion of colonial laws, arbitrary borders, recognition status, financial limitations and challenges to Tribal sovereignty. Despite these barriers, Indigenous communities and land trusts are increasingly working toward Indigenous land access and return.
“The land itself doesn’t know any of these barriers and doesn’t know anything about the deeds or anything like that. It still has our ancestral imprints there,” said Ramona Peters, Mashpee Wampanoag and founder of The Native Land Conservancy. “Restoring land to the care of the original people will revitalize those connections to the land. That principle of Tribal leadership will come out and be informed by that dynamic.”
While conducting research for the report, the author team found more than 70 partnerships that have restored access or returned land to Tribes or Indigenous-led non-profits across the United States.
“This research helped translate a broad and often complex concept into clear, practical strategies to support Land Back efforts,” said Lisa Wilson, a Muckleshoot Tribal Citizen working for Tahoma Peak Solutions, and the lead on the report’s author team. “It was a true honor to be part of such a powerful and inspiring project. The Indigenous leaders featured in these case studies were profoundly impactful. I was deeply humbled by their trust, inspired by their stories, and grew through the knowledge they so generously shared. I also raise my hands to the allies doing the necessary work of moving beyond their comfort zones and prior understandings to embody solidarity in meaningful, actionable ways.”
Rather than suggesting a single, one-size-fits-all approach, the report highlights a spectrum of approaches that can facilitate land access and return from traditional harvest programs to cultural respect easements to land donation. The report is grounded in the lessons learned from successful partnerships and emphasizes the importance of relationship building and collaboration.
“We all have something to learn from the Indigenous leaders and partners featured in this report,” said co-author Forrest King-Cortes, director of community-centered conservation at the Land Trust Alliance. “The case studies encourage us to relearn the history and cultural significance of the land around us, remember what it takes to build trust and rethink the ways we approach conservation. I hope that this report brings encouragement to those already engaged in these efforts and inspiration to those who have yet to join in.”
The authors are preparing a set of supplemental case studies from other land access and return partnerships in various geographic regions for release later this summer.
About the Native Land Conservancy:
The Native Land Conservancy is an Indigenous-led land conservation nonprofit. Our all-Indigenous board of directors draws upon our collective traditional cultural knowledge as Indigenous people with generations of direct experience in the woodlands, coastlines and waterways of our ancestral homelands. Our mission is to protect and restore land wherever possible for all living things. We do this through acquiring the deed to land, holding conservation easements, land care activities and public walks. We support Indigenous cultural preservation through cultural workshops, cultural respect easements and special events. We are based in Mashpee, on Cape Cod, but we have expanded our work to assist Tribal partners across Turtle Island. More information is available at nativelandconservancy.org.
About the Land Trust Alliance:
Founded in 1982, the Land Trust Alliance is a national land conservation organization working to save the places that people need and love by empowering and mobilizing land trusts in communities across America to conserve land for the benefit of all. The Alliance represents approximately 1,000 member land trusts and affiliates supported by more than 250,000 volunteers and 6.3 million members nationwide. The Alliance is based in Washington, D.C., with staff working in communities across the country.