Indigenous Women and Femmes Are Winning Fights to Reclaim Land

Indigenous women and men continue to pioneer the creative reclamation of Indigenous lands, despite the barriers put in place to sabotage the work of return These lands belong to their original caretakers. A sympathetic movement has formed under the umbrella of the “Earth Back” cry. The logo is as clear as possible. “Earth Return” means exactly the following: Return of the land – acre upon acre of it. Land Back also means taking care of water protection and access to spaces with a long cultural life that many indigenous peoples need.

Across so-called North America, Indigenous women are indomitable, and in the land reclaiming business, this is no exception. Land-return campaigns take many forms ranging from land purchases, creative access and application of United States law, compensatory tax structures that fuel healthy land stewardship, information campaigns to raise public awareness, and much more. Here are some of the ways Indigenous women and men are leading these efforts.

A legacy of broken treaties

“When the Indians gave their word and smoked the pipe, they sent the smoke to the Creator. It was sacred, and the treaty was good in the eyes of all. The white men had to go back and ask the other white men if they could keep their promises and keep their promises.”

— Fine DeLoria Jr., 2014

Treaties between the United States and tribal states are rarely discussed in mainstream politics, yet they legally frame and underpin much of the legal infrastructure of American treaties…