The Case for Returning U.S. #PublicLands to #IndigenousPeople

by Joe Whittle, Mar 6, 2025

"Since the start of Trump’s second term, his administration has fired thousands of federal workers across multiple public lands agencies, including the National Park Service, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The effects of this are vast: It’s going to have a profoundly negative impact on the environment and the way millions of Americans enjoy public lands, cause immeasurable harm to America’s wildest places, and devastate the economies built around them.

"After serving 12 years as a backcountry wilderness ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, I'm convinced there is an alternative: the U.S. needs to return its public lands to Native Americans. In fact, I believe that might be the only way to save our parks and forests from corporate privatization and destruction, as well as preserve public access to them. If the U.S. won’t properly care for its public lands, why not return them to their original caretakers?

"This isn’t a new idea. #NativeAmericans argued that treaty law required
'abandoned' federal land to be returned to tribes during the occupation of #Alcatraz Island by the #AmericanIndianMovement in the 1960s. In more recent years, the #LandbackMovement has given rise to increased calls for the return of territorial land to #IndigenousNations, and the return of land management based in #TraditionalEcologicalKnowledge—expertise gathered from thousands of years of having deep relationships with specific environments. There’s a strong legal argument that land return is constitutionally required as damages due for hundreds of treaty violations. However, there’s also a lot of data showing Indigenous land management is more ecologically sound than government or industrially managed land. For instance, #ProjectDrawdown, a global leader in science-based #ClimateChange solutions, estimates that returning 1,000 million hectares of land to Indigenous tenureship by 2050 would sequester over 12 gigatons of carbon dioxide."

Read more:
https://time.com/7262838/us-public-lands-return-indigenous-people/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/QnF32

#LandBack #AIM #StolenLand #StolenLands #NationalParks #TEK #ClimateCrisis #ClimateSolutions #IndigenousPeoples #IndigenousPeoplesMonth #GiveItBack #Stewardship #LandIsLife #WaterIsLife #AlcatrazIsland #Resistance #USPol #TrumpSucks #RespectTheTreaties

#NativeAmerican Tribal #ClimateAdaptation: #Indigenous Solutions to Environmental Change

Posted on September 24, 2025

#IndigenousResilience: Native American Tribes Pioneer Climate Adaptation with Ancestral Wisdom

"In the global discourse on climate change, the voices and experiences of Indigenous peoples often remain on the periphery, despite their disproportionate vulnerability and their profound, millennia-old understanding of environmental stewardship. Native American tribes across the United States are not merely passive victims of a warming planet; they are at the forefront of climate adaptation, leveraging #TraditionalEcologicalKnowledge (#TEK) to devise innovative and culturally resonant solutions to environmental change. Their strategies offer a compelling blueprint for resilience, emphasizing holistic relationships with the land, water, and all living beings.
Indigenous communities, though comprising less than 5% of the world’s population, protect an estimated 80% of global #biodiversity. This staggering statistic underscores their intimate connection to and unparalleled knowledge of the #NaturalWorld.

"However, this deep reliance on specific ecosystems also makes them acutely susceptible to climate impacts. Rising sea levels threaten coastal tribes, increased wildfires devastate forest-dwelling nations, prolonged droughts imperil agricultural practices in the Southwest, and melting permafrost destabilizes infrastructure in Alaska. For these communities, #ClimateChange is not a distant threat but an immediate, existential crisis eroding their lands, cultures, and ways of life.

"The historical context of colonization, forced displacement, and resource exploitation has exacerbated these vulnerabilities. Stripped of ancestral lands, denied self-governance, and subjected to policies that disrupted traditional land management practices, many tribes now face climate challenges with limited resources and fractured ecosystems. Yet, it is within this crucible of adversity that their resilience shines brightest."

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/0rByG

#SolarPunkSunday #FoodSovereignty #LandManagement #Landback #Droughts #SeaLevelRise #ClimateChallenges #Adaptation #WaterScarcity #IndigenousKnowledge #AncientPractices #ModernTechnology #IndigenousPeoplesMonth

Organic reach: #FoodSovereignty moves to the web

#ColonialContact brought foreign food and disease to tribal nations. Now, a digital generation is reconnecting with tradition.

by Kim Baca April 18, 2018

Excerpt: "When Native Americans were forced to assimilate — confined to reservations and placed in Indian boarding schools — traditional food preparation waned, forgotten in a world of processed foods and modern cooking conveniences. But [#MariahGladstone], who shops at the grocery store, hunts or receives food from family and friends, wants to show how easy, affordable and tasty Indigenous cooking can be. Her recipe for salmon cornmeal cakes, which takes just five steps and five ingredients, appears in a how-to video on her 'Indigikitchen' (Indigenous kitchen) Facebook page, which has more than 1,400 followers.

" 'There is also a lot of interest from Native communities across the country to revitalize their Native foods, not only for the health benefit but for the connection to our ancestors and to recognize our identities as Native people,' she said.

"Some Indigenous chefs are incorporating traditional foods in anti-Thanksgiving pop-up dinners, cooking without any dairy, processed flour or sugar, all ingredients introduced after European contact. This excludes #frybread, often considered a traditional Native food enjoyed at powwows and other Indigenous events. Few realize that frybread was created by Navajos in 1864, during their forced removal, when they had little to eat other than U.S. government rations of white flour, sugar and lard.

"But 'pre-Contact' cooking is more than a foodie trend for people like 13-year-old Maizie White, an #AkwesasneMohawk seventh-grader who writes about Indigenous food and shares recipes on her blog, NativeHearth.com. Her recipes include avocado hominy salsa, spiced squash waffles, wild rice stuffed squash and venison roast and gravy.

" 'It helps #IndigenousFarmers and local people who are growing the food to make a living,' said White, who was invited by #SeanSherman, an #OglalaLakota also known as '#TheSiouxChef,' to cook at the renowned James Beard House in New York City. 'We’re giving back to our community and it is much more healthier and much more economical to cook. It also brings us back to what was here beforehand and respect what was already here.' "

Read more:
https://www.hcn.org/issues/50-7/tribal-affairs-organic-reach-food-sovereignty-moves-onto-the-web/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/E2FRq

#SolarPunkSunday #AnimalProducts #IndigenousFoodSecurity #IndigenousFoodSovereignty #IndigenousFoodSystems #LandBack #Reclaiming #Decolonize #TraditionalDiets #AntiThanksgiving #TraditionalFoods #IndigenousPeoplesMonth

Ipinagdiriwang tuwing Oktubre ang National Indigenous Peoples Month upang kilalanin at protektahan ang karapatan ng mga indigenous cultural communities (ICCs) at indigenous peoples (IPs) sa Pilipinas.

#IndigenousPeoplesMonth
#BMPM