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- By Chez Oxendine
- Real Estate
From a historic return of sacred land in Rhode Island to a potential game-changing land swap in Alaska, Native nations saw significant movement on land transfers and policy changes over the past few weeks.
The Department of Interior recommended a major Alaska Native corporation land exchange that could finally connect King Cove to Cold Bay, while Brown University transferred 255 acres back to the Pokanoket Tribe. New federal legislation could also expand property rights for Michigan's Bay Mills Indian Community. Here’s the roundup.
Native corp, feds eye land swap for controversial Alaska road project
A new road could be built through Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge thanks to a proposed land swap between the federal government and Alaska Native Corporation King Cove Corp.
Per a report by Alaska News Source, the Department of Interior’s US Fish and Wildlife Service recommends a multi-part land swap. The swap would trade 490 acres of existing wildlife refuge land to King Cove Corp in exchange for 31,198 acres of the latter’s land near the Alaska Peninsula Wildlife Refuge, east of Izembek.
The land transfer would open the way toward building an 18.9 mile road through the refuges across the top of the Alaska Peninsula. If constructed, the road would cost $21 million for a single-lane gravel passageway. The path would connect King Cove - an Aleut community with around 900 people - to the airport at nearby Cold Bay, potentially widening trade and travel opportunities.
The recommendation is the latest step in what Alaska News Source called a “decades long” process trying to build a road between the two communities. Various legal issues, as well as concerns raised by environmentalists and other Native residents in the state, have stymied previous efforts as recently as 2019. That year, a federal judge struck down a proposed land swap, finding it exceeded the Department of Interior’s legal authority, according to a report by the Alaska Beacon.
Ivy League school returns sacred Pokanoket sand after decades of control
Brown University has transferred ownership of a significant portion of its Bristol, Rhode Island property to a preservation trust established by the Pokanoket Indian Tribe, marking a historic moment in the relationship between the Ivy League institution and Native peoples of the region, the Associated Press reports.
The transferred land, part of Brown's 375-acre Mount Hope property, holds deep cultural significance as the ancestral home of Metacom (King Philip), the 17th-century Pokanoket leader who died there during King Philip's War in 1676. The move follows a 2017 agreement reached after tribal members staged an encampment on the property, asserting their historical claim to the land.
Pokanoket Sachem Tracey "Dancing Star" Trezvant Guy celebrated the transfer, noting its profound historical significance for her people. The university plans to relocate its Haffenreffer Museum collection from the property by summer 2026.
Legislation would give Michigan tribe more power over property interests
A U.S. House billl introduced on Nov. 20 would authorize the Bay Mills Indian Community to transfer, lease, or otherwise convey land and property interests owned by the tribe without requiring additional federal approval.
The legislation, H.R. 10176, was introduced by Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Michigan) and referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. The bill would only apply to tribal lands not held in trust by the federal government. The measure specifically excludes any tribal lands held in trust by the United States and includes provisions limiting federal liability related to any land transactions made under the proposed law. The limitation on liability would not apply in cases where the federal government is party to the transaction or if the tribe transfers land to be held in trust by the United States.
The bill aims to give the Michigan-based tribe more autonomy over its non-trust real estate dealings while maintaining existing protections for trust lands.
Land deals
Native nonprofit NDN Collective, through community development arm NDN Holdings, has transferred two acres of land to the Eyak tribe in Alaska. Per an NDN Collective press release, the organization first purchased the property, located along Eyak Lake in southern Alaska, in October 2021, and began working with the tribe to fully transfer ownership. The land is now controlled by the Eyak Community Land Trust, which was established as a collaboration between the Eyak tribe and the nonprofit Nature Conservancy. The Eyak plan to utilize the land for cultural and ecological education workshops, the press release states.
A St. Louis property containing part of an Osage Nation mound will be transferred back to the tribe, according to a report by The Art Newspaper. The area, known as Sugarleaf Mound, is a thousand-year-old sacred site that was previously under private ownership. The transfer is part of an ongoing effort by the tribe, first started in 2009, to purchase all of the property around the mound and install art and educational buildings on the sites. Per the Art Newspaper, the mound is the only surviving Native American earthwork still in St. Louis.
Two tribes will receive land through conservation grants awarded by the state of Virginia, per a release from the state Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office. The first, the Monacan Indian Nation, will receive 100.4 forested acres on Bear Mountain Amherst County through roughly $285,000 in state funding. The second, the Patawomeck Tribe, will receive 14.24 acres along the Rappahannock River through roughly $391,000 in state funding. Per the press release, the tribe plans to create a public access trail and a small boat loading area along the river. The acquisitions were part of a wider array of $14.4 million in land conservation grants, which also included investments in new public parks, conservation easements for timberland, and farmland protections.
Trust acquisitions
The Navajo Nation has completed a trust acquisition for the first time since 2016, bringing 13.89 acres of land into trust in late November, per a report by our sister paper Native News Online. The land, located along US 89 near Flagstaff, Ariz., will be the site for a casino run by the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise, and is expected to create 100 new jobs, per a report by Yogonet. The last land transfer for the Navajo Nation took place in September 2016, in which 85.68 acres of land in Tse Bonito, New Mexico, entered trust. Money from the casino development will support Navajo tribal members who were relocated under the 1974 Settlement Act, per the Native News Online report. That act divided the Navajo and Hopi reservations, forcing some families to move in the process.
Noteworthy
The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, also known as the Gun Lake Tribe, have laid out their latest plans for a series of land acquisitions along the US 131 corridor between Wayland, Mich. and the tribe’s Gun Lake Casino. Local news station ABC 13 On Your Side reports infrastructure developments, such as a water tower and water treatment plant, as well as plans for affordable housing and office and retail space. The tribe expects the first housing development in the area to be open to the market in 2025, per the ABC 13 report.
Worth a read
The Verge has completed a series of stories on Indigenous solutions to climate change with a look at the intersection between Native resilience and the landback movement. The article points to projects such as a restoration initiative under the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, which aims to plant trees and restore wetlands at the Wuda Ogwa sacred site in Idaho. Native reservations are widely acknowledged to be more susceptible to climate impact change than much of the United States - and so Indigenous communities have been leading the charge in climate resilience, as the Verge reports.
Brian Edwards contributed reporting on this story.
If you have news or information about land back, trust acquisitions, or other deals involving tribal land, send a note to [email protected].
