Land Back facts for kids
Land Back is a movement where Indigenous peoples and their supporters work to get back control of their traditional lands. It's also known by the hashtag #LandBack or Rematriation. This movement started around 2010 among Indigenous groups in places like Australia, Canada, and the United States. It's all about helping Indigenous communities regain political and economic power over the lands their ancestors lived on. The Land Back idea is also used in Mexico, and scholars have looked at it in New Zealand and Fiji. It's a key part of a larger effort called decolonization, which means undoing the effects of colonial rule.
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What Land Back Means
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The Land Back movement aims to give Indigenous groups back their power over lands that were promised to them by treaties. Experts from the Yellowhead Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University say it's about Indigenous communities taking back their right to govern themselves. The NDN Collective describes it as being the same as decolonization and breaking down systems of unfairness. Land Back supports Indigenous rights, helps keep languages and traditions alive, and works for things like food sovereignty (controlling their own food supply), good housing, and a clean environment.
A big moment for the movement in the United States was during the Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign when there were protests at Mount Rushmore. This area is part of the Black Hills land claim, which is sacred land for the Sioux people.
The Ideas Behind Land Back
The NDN Collective explains that Land Back is like a big story that connects many different Indigenous groups. It's similar to the Black Lives Matter movement. They say it helps Indigenous leaders work together and deals with the structural racism (unfair systems) that Indigenous people face because their land was taken.
Land Back promotes the idea of sharing land as a community, like Indigenous peoples did traditionally. It goes against the colonial idea of private land ownership. Giving land back isn't just about money; it's also about bringing back relationships and self-governance.
Sometimes, Land Back involves a land tax. This tax would collect money from people who are not Indigenous. Other ways Land Back happens include Indigenous communities managing National Parks or other government lands.
How Land Back Happens
Sometimes, land is given directly back to Indigenous people. This can happen when private landowners, cities, or governments return the land to Indigenous tribes. This might be a simple sale or transfer within the current land ownership system.
Indigenous-led projects might also use community land trusts. These are special groups that hold land for the benefit of their community.
Land Back Actions
In July 2020, activists from NDN Collective held a protest on a road leading to Mount Rushmore. This was when Donald Trump was giving a speech there. The site is sacred to the Sioux people and is part of their unceded land. The protestors wrote the "Land Back Manifesto," which calls for "the reclamation of everything stolen from the original Peoples." Also in 2020, Haudenosaunee people from the Six Nations of the Grand River blocked 1492 Land Back Lane. They did this to stop a housing development on their traditional territory.
On July 4, 2021, in Rapid City, South Dakota, four people were arrested. They had climbed a building downtown and hung an upside-down US flag that said "Land Back." Rapid City is very close to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Land Transfers
Many pieces of land have been returned to Indigenous communities:
- The Wiyot people have lived on Duluwat Island in California for thousands of years. In 2004, the city of Eureka gave land back to the Wiyot tribe. This added to land the Wiyot had already bought. The city gave another 60 acres in 2006.
- The Mashpee Wampanoag have lived in Massachusetts and Rhode Island for thousands of years. In 2007, about 300 acres of land in Massachusetts were set aside as a reservation for the tribe.
- In 2016, Dr. Mohan Singh Virick, a Punjabi Sikh doctor, donated 140 hectares of land to Eskasoni First Nation in Nova Scotia, Canada. He had served Indigenous people there for 50 years. He also gave a building in Sydney to help house the growing Eskasoni population.
- In October 2018, the city of Vancouver, British Columbia returned an ancient burial site called the Great Marpole Midden to the Musqueam people. This land holds ancient remains of a Musqueam house.
- In 2019, the United Methodist Church gave 3 acres of historic land back to the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma. The US government had promised the tribe 148,000 acres in what is now Kansas City, Kansas, in 1819. But when 664 Wyandotte people arrived, the land had been given to someone else.
- In July 2020, a group of Esselen descendants bought a 1,200-acre ranch near Big Sur, California. This purchase, part of a larger $4.5 million deal, aims to protect old forests and wildlife in historical Esselen lands.
- Land on the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia was returned to the Tsartlip First Nation in December 2020.
- In 2021, the National Bison Range (18,800 acres) was transferred from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service back to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
- In August 2022, the Red Cliff Chippewa in northern Wisconsin received 1,500 acres of land along the Lake Superior shoreline from the Bayfield County government. This followed an agreement in 2017 to restore their reservation boundaries.
- In October 2022, a 1-acre site in Altadena was returned to the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy by a private resident. This was the first time the Tongva had land in Los Angeles County in 200 years.
- In 2024, the Government of British Columbia transferred ownership of more than 200 islands off Canada's west coast to the Haida people. This recognized the Haida's original land title throughout Haida Gwaii.
- In 2025, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians bought over 2,000 acres of land near the Table Rocks preserve north of Medford, Oregon.
- On March 21, 2025, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed a law allowing Shabbona Lake State Park to be transferred to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.
- In June 2025, land purchases were finished to create the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community Forest. The Western Rivers Conservancy helped with this project alongside the Yurok Tribe. The Yurok Tribe will now manage this land, in what is considered the largest Land Back conservation deal so far.
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