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Tribal & Native Lands Restoration

Photo by: Phil Schermeister

"This is sacred land to us. It is the burial ground of our ancestors and it is deeply satisfying to have it protected," --Bruce Parry, Executive Director, Northwest Band of Shoshone Nation, March 24, 2003.

Large-scale disruption of and displacement from aboriginal lands can strain the cultural and spiritual values derived from the land that form the basis of tribal society. Restoration of tribal lands is fundamental to the preservation of tribal heritage and history, economic survival of Indian communities, and for conservation of precious natural resources for physical subsistence.

The social disparities and problems faced by all of society today are amplified on the reservations. Indians living on reservations have the highest unemployment rate in the country, ranging from 30 percent to as high as 75 percent. Among those with jobs, nearly a third earn wages under the poverty line. Substandard housing, education and health care can also stress remote tribal communities. Economic revitalization of Indian communities is essential to assisting tribes in addressing these conditions.

Tribes have developed the capacity as resource managers that compliments unifying and expanding a tribal land base for rebuilding tribal economies. For example, the InterTribal Bison Cooperative, a consortium of more than 40 tribes, is working to restore the bison-a hallmark of Plains culture and economy-by raising free-range bison for the burgeoning health food market. Environmental and wildlife management also offers other opportunities for economic development. At the TPL-established InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Park in Mendocino County, California, jobs and job training in restoration ecology are offered to Native Americans. In Northern Minnesota, TPL acquired a 2,500-acre wild-rice farm for the Red Lake Band of the Chippewa Tribe to protect natural resources and to train tribal youth in agriculture.

Preserving culturally and historically significant sites is also essential to educating Indian and non-Indian alike about this country's diversity. Restoration of a land base helps maintain Native American heritage, history and culture. TPL's acquisition of the 777-acre Miller Island in Oregon has enabled the Warm Springs, Umatilla, Yakama and Nez Perce Tribes to protect this site's extraordinary cultural values and use the island for re-internments of ancestral remains returned to the them under the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act. Wocus Point, an important burial site in Oregon's Klamath Basin, has been protected by TPL from looting and vandalism of its gravesites by placing it in federal ownership. In southeastern Idaho, TPL placed 26 acres into the ownership of the Northwest Band of Shoshone Nation. This land was a part of the site of the Bear River Massacre where an estimated 350 Shoshone men, women and children were killed at the hands of US troops in 1863.

Conservation of precious land and wildlife resources is another measurable benefit of returning native lands to tribal management. At Sinkyone Wilderness Park, the InterTribal Council purchased the land under a restrictive conservation easement that guides management of the land to promote old growth forests and protect the habitat of the spotted owl. Along the shores of the Columbia River in Oregon, TPL assisted the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation to acquire nearly 2,400 acres. This land was acquired with funds from Bonneville Power Administration for wildlife mitigation and will managed for the benefit of the wildlife resources and the region's citizens.

Posted 12/2003