- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Real Estate
Here's our regular roundup of tribal land and real estate news, including a town with some Native history removing land acknowledgements over legal concerns, a potential road blockade on the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe reservation in Wisconsin, Alaska's challenge to a court decision on trust lands for Native tribes, and more.
Plymouth stops Native land acknowledgements over landback concerns
The town of Plymouth, Mass. — you know, the place with the rock and the Pilgrims — has decided to pull land acknowledgements from its agenda after the town attorney raised concerns about future landback implications for the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe.
Cape Cod Times reports that acknowledgements regarding the town’s presence on Wampanoag ancestral lands were proposed for town meetings in May. In mid-August, those acknowledgements were removed from the agenda after the town’s general counsel, Kate McKay, said the acknowledgements could have “future binding implications.”
Land acknowledgments are short recognitions of Indigenous peoples originally inhabiting a given area. They’ve proven popular among universities, towns, and other institutions, per the Cape Cod Times report. McKay said in her opinion that while she could not find any instances of land acknowledgements fueling landback initiatives in court, the lack of existing case law left a potential opening.
"The lack of uniformity amongst all land acknowledgements prevents a generalized opinion applicable to all acknowledgements," McKay said in her statement.
Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe Chair Melissa Ferretti told the publication that she was “disappointed” with Plymouth’s decision.
"Suggesting this is harmful creates further unnecessary division during a critical time of national discord," said Ferretti. "The decision may be a punch in the gut for me, but it is surely a black eye for Plymouth."
A longstanding land dispute with Lac du Flambeau tribe could shut down roads
A land dispute that began in January of 2023 could result in a blockade shutting access to non-tribal residences on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in Wisconsin. It would be the second such blockade since the dispute began, according to a report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The roads were constructed “decades ago” without the tribe’s approval, per tribal president John Johnson, speaking to the Journal Sentinel. Easements for the roads were managed by originating title companies, but those titles have since expired. Subsequent negotiations with federal authorities, the title companies representing the private properties, and the town of Lac du Flambeau have fallen through.
That led the tribe to first blockade four roads on the reservation in January 2023. The roads reopened in March that year after the town paid $60,000 in compensation to the tribe. The town has since paid a rising fee each month for the use of the roads, beginning at $20,000 and growing by $2,000 per month. The latest payment, made in July, was $48,000.
The town can’t continue to make the payments, per a report from radio news station WXPR. A meeting agenda from the Lac du Flambeau Town Board attests the town is “unable, not unwilling,” to pay the permit fees for August 12 through September 12. As a result the tribe considers the payments in default, and could shut down access to the roads again.
Local media reports that the town made a lump sum offer of $1.8 million as a counteroffer to a tribal request of $10 million. The tribe has not yet responded to the offer, but told the Journal Sentinel they may consider town land ceded back to the tribe instead.
Land Into Trust
The state of Alaska is challenging a recent U.S. District Court decision that supports Alaska Native tribes' efforts to protect traditional lands through federal trust. On Friday, the Alaska Department of Law filed a notice to appeal the decision, which overturned long-standing precedent by allowing the federal government to establish new trust lands for tribes under certain conditions. Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor argues that the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, which eliminated the reservation system in Alaska, does not grant federal authority to recreate such a system. The state seeks a final resolution from the appellate courts on this issue, according to the Alaska Beacon, which has been covering this case, which would allow for tribes in Alaska to place land into trust.
Two proposed casino projects by Native American tribes in northern California face escalating opposition from local governments, neighboring tribes, and Governor Gavin Newsom. The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians and the Koi Nation each seek to establish casinos on new lands that they’re trying to get put into federal trust, but the proposals have sparked intense debates over land rights and tribal sovereignty. Critics, including the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation and local county officials, argue that the land is historically and environmentally significant and question the legitimacy of the tribes' claims. Governor Newsom has intervened, urging the Department of Interior to halt the projects. Here’s a more in-depth Tribal Business News story on the casino clashes.
U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) introduced two pieces of legislation on Aug. 16 to take land into trust for a pair of tribes in the state of Washington. Kilmer also introduced HR 9372 to restore more than 1,000 acres of ancestral land along the Elwha River to the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. The parcels were acquired by the National Parks Service, and taking them into trust would protect and restore sacred lands and allow for the protection and repopulation of native fish species, according to a statement. Kilmer also introduced HR 9371 to take certain lands in the State of Washington into trust for the benefit of the Quinault Indian Nation. Both bills have been referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
LandBack
The Caldwell First Nation in Ontario, Canada has begun moving tribal members to its reserve, according to a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The tribe expects “dozens” of families to have begun their move to the reserve, located in southwestern Ontario on the north shore of Lake Erie, by September, the CBC writes. The moves arrive after the tribe’s land - allocated in a 2008 land-claim settlement - was designated as a reserve in 2020. The initial plot of land has 28 housing units on it, the CBC writes. “I wanted this all my life. And my mother and father wanted this for their entire married life,” former Caldwell chief Larry Johnson told CBC. “And our elders, those who aren't with us anymore. They wanted something like this: a homeland."
Noteworthy
The NDN Collective showed up at the 2024 Democratic National Convention last week to remind candidates and delegates that the event was taking place on the stolen lands of Indigenous people. The South Dakota-based Native-serving nonprofit highlighted the landback movement, the ongoing impacts of colonialism, and expressed solidarity with the Palestinian Liberation movement. They called for a permanent ceasefire and an end to military aid to Israel, while advocating for a more responsive governance system beyond the current two-party structure. NDN Collective also emphasized the need for executive clemency for Leonard Peltier, the longest-serving Indigenous political prisoner.
If you have news or information about landback acquisitions or deals involving tribal land, shoot me a note at [email protected].
