Support the land back movement.
Happy Thursday. Many of you asked if I could help provide ways to celebrate Thanksgiving better, but I don’t think that’s the right approach. When it comes to this work, we need to center marginalized communities outside of the lens of whiteness and oppression. So instead, I urge you to celebrate Indigenous resistance and resilience, and commit both today and each day to reparations. Today we’re analyzing the importance of the land back movement and how we can do our part to advocate for the return of stolen lands.
You may also benefit from reading about the myth of Columbus and the importance of Indigenous People’s Day.
Thank you to everyone that makes this newsletter possible! Support our work by making a one-time contribution on ourwebsiteorPayPal, or giving monthly onPatreon. You can also Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). To subscribe, go toantiracismdaily.com. You can share this newsletter and unlock some fun rewards bysigning up here. I'm grateful for each one of you that's with me on this journey.
Nicole
TAKE ACTION
Practice a land acknowledgment with your loved ones today. Use the Native Land app to identify to whom the land belongs, and follow these steps before participating.
Then, research how you can support the Indigenous community closest to you. Donate to a mutual aid fund, advocate for a local land back initiative, etc. Here is a broader mutual aid fund to support as an alternative.
Sign the petition to close Mt. Rushmore and return all public Lands in the Black Hills to the Oceti Sakowin,
GET EDUCATED
By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)
From 1778 to 1871, the United States signed some 368 treaties with various Indigenous people across the North American continent. The treaties were based on the fundamental notion that each tribe was an independent nation. But as white settlers began moving onto Native American lands, these treaties were abandoned, replaced by greed, dominance, and oppression (History).
Another major contributor was the Indian Relocation Act of 1830, which forced around 100,000 Indigenous people from five tribal nations out of their homelands. Indigenous communities not only were forcefully separated from their land, and an estimated 15,000 Indigenous people from various nations died of disease and other causes during these forced marches (Atlas Obscura).
One of many of these broken treaties is The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, where the U.S. signed an agreement with Native communities historically known as the Sioux (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota) and Arapaho. It established the Great Sioux Reservation, a large swath of lands west of the Missouri River, and designated the Black Hills as “unceded Indian Territory” (Smithsonian Magazine). But when gold was found on that land, the U.S. changed their minds – and redrew the boundaries of the treaty to work in their favor, stripping the people of their own land.
In the five generations since the treaty was signed and broken, the Sioux Nations have steadily lost reservation lands to white development. They now live in small reservations scattered throughout the region. Meanwhile, the U.S. grew this region of South Dakota into a national tourist attraction by creating Mt. Rushmore, designed to be a “testament to American exceptionalism,” and centering presidents who themselves contributed to the violence and disenfranchisement of Indigenous communities (National Geographic). Protests at Mt. Rushmore during 4th of July weekend amplified the modern-day land back movement. Local tribes are still demanding the closure of this monument, in addition to the return of the stolen lands it occupies (NDN Collective).
Efforts to reclaim these lands – both in the U.S. and abroad – have been happening for generations. The magazine Briarpatch recently published a 100-year history of the land struggle with key wins in both the U.S. and Canada. And there’s been some progress this year. The Esselen tribe of Northern California reclaimed 1,200 acres of ancestral land after 250 years (The Guardian). And just this month, four dams on the Klamath River in Southern Oregon and Northern California were scheduled for removal, restoring river health and declining salmon runs (Oregon Public Broadcasting).
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The only reparation for land is land.Madonna Thunder Hawk, Lakota matriarch and Lakota People's Law Project organizer
Giving land back is a clear and obvious way to repair the legacy of violence and harm against Indigenous communities. But it’s also a way to repair our relationship with the environment. Indigenous communities have been stewarding this earth sustainably for generations, and never produced the amount of emissions and toxins we’re dealing with today. They also have an innate knowledge of how to encourage reforestation, preserve our waters, manage fires, and preserve biological diversity. In this way, land back is more than returning territory, but expanding tribal management, and centers Indigenous communities in the heart of climate justice. Read more in Lakota People’s Law Project.
In the absence of land return, other initiatives are focused on the return – or “rematriation” – of seeds from native lands. European settlers, and later, U.S. government officials, would attack the food supplies of Indigenous communities as a way to force them to move. Some would leave without these precious seeds, and others would relocate only to discover their seeds couldn’t grow in new terrains. For many Indigenous people, seeds represent the connection to the land and the ancestors that stewarded them. Efforts like The Indigenous Seed Keepers Network are working to bring those seeds back to the people and their lands, and cultivate the Indigenous food movement (Atlas Obscura).
Once realized, comprehensive land back can transform modern-day Indigenous communities. It has the opportunity to untether these lands from a history of white supremacy and systemic oppression, including the local law enforcement. It has the potential to re-establish access to basic utilities like clean water and air, and redefine what leadership looks like. But more importantly, it’s the right thing to do. I can’t imagine what it’s like to watch a nation celebrate erasure and land theft each year, but I can commit to advocating for reparations. This is work we can rally for today and throughout the year.
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Land is more than the diaphanousness of inhabited memories; Land is spiritual, emotional, and relational; Land is experiential, (re)membered, and storied; Land is consciousness—Land is sentient. Land refers to the ways we honor and respect her as a sentient and conscious being. Therefore, in acknowledgment of the fundamental being of Land I always capitalize Land. I have come to know Land both as a fundamental sentient being and as a philosophical construct.
Sandra Styres (Kanien’kehá:ka) from Literacies of Land
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The federal government offered a series of treaties to Indigenous communities across the U.S., but broke nearly all of the agreements
The forceable removal of Native communities from their lands has stripped people of their culture and connection to their ancestors
Initiatives to return stolen lands aren't just reparations, but a clear way to disamantle white supremacy and center Indigenous communities in climate justice
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