JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In the United States, there are more than 500 separate tribal nations and 325 American Indian reservations. Many of those reservations are often small remnants of the tribe's ancestral land. In recent years, there has been growing momentum for the so-called Land Back movement, where tribes seek to reclaim control over land they once had. We have two reports on both the long opposition and increasing support for returning land. First, here's Dan Gunderson of member station Minnesota Public Radio.
DAN GUNDERSON, BYLINE: The White Earth Reservation covers about 1,200 square miles in northern Minnesota. It's a checkerboard of state, county, federal and private lands, and the White Earth Nation retains ownership of only about 10% of the original reservation lands.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in non-English language).
GUNDERSON: During his recent inauguration ceremony, White Earth Tribal chair, Michael Fairbanks, talked about the opposition to legislation introduced at the state Capitol, calling for the return of thousands of acres of state land.
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MICHAEL FAIRBANKS: You know, we went down there last year, and we stirred up a hornet's nest.
GUNDERSON: As he started his second term, Fairbanks pledged to continue the effort.
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FAIRBANKS: Trying to get back our 155,000 acres.
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GUNDERSON: Land Back initiatives have been successful from California to Maine, but many face opposition that drags out the process for years. When the White Earth proposal brought harsh responses from non-native neighbors, Fairbanks was surprised.
FAIRBANKS: You know, at one time, all the land within the forest was our land. The land grab acts tore it all apart.
GUNDERSON: The Land Acts were a series of congressional actions in the early 1900s that paved the way for timber companies to take the land. A federal investigation at the time found widespread fraud. Fairbanks says the loss of their land led to generations of poverty and trauma.
FAIRBANKS: So, how I look at this Land Back is a healing mechanism. It's healing for - when the state hands the land back to the tribe, it's healing for the tribe, and the state can heal itself from the history of how it was taken from us.
GUNDERSON: But around the reservation, many county officials consider that history irrelevant. Becker County manages thousands of acres of land that was once part of the reservation, earning money from timber and land sales. County Commissioner Barry Nelson says there might have been fraud in the past, but he believes the tribe has been compensated.
BARRY NELSON: If someone truly believes that land has been stolen and it's owed, then show me that it hasn't been paid for.
GUNDERSON: In the 1980s, Congress authorized payment to clear disputed ownership of some land on the reservation. But as the White Earth Nation pushes to get its land back, tensions that have simmered for decades are coming to the fore. Craig Hall is a sportsman who hunts and snowmobiles on the forest land White Earth wants returned from the state. He thinks the tribe will shut non-native people out if they control the land, even though tribal officials insist that is not their plan.
CRAIG HALL: If you think this is going to stop here - if they get this, I'm just telling you - it's not. 'Cause once they get a little bit, they're just going to keep taking and taking and taking.
GUNDERSON: Hall supports eliminating the reservation. He says non-native residents are not treated fairly inside the reservation boundaries.
HALL: Everything goes to race. Everything goes to race. You're a racist. You're a racist. I don't feel that that is the case at all.
GUNDERSON: The White Earth Nation is not backing down and is making Land Back a priority. Tribal Chair Fairbanks says he's learned to be patient.
FAIRBANKS: This has been talked about for many, many years, and they had to realize. They had to realize that this day was coming. They had to. Either it was last year or this year or next year or 10 years from now - this day was coming. And today is today. It's here.
GUNDERSON: Fairbanks will continue trying to convince state lawmakers to return the land and help start healing century-old wounds.
For NPR News, I'm Dan Gunderson on the White Earth Indian reservation.
MELISSA OLSON, BYLINE: I'm Melissa Olson. Just an hour's drive east of White Earth is the Leech Lake Reservation.
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OLSON: This summer, Leech Lake chairman Faron Jackson welcomed federal, state and local officials to mark the return of land from the Chippewa National Forest.
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FARON JACKSON: This is the largest achievement by the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe to restore the land base of our permanent homeland since it was originally established in the 1800s.
OLSON: The reservation includes more than 850,000 acres near the headwaters of the Mississippi. About a fourth of the area is covered by lakes. Like White Earth Nation, Leech Lake is a mix of tribal, federal, state and privately owned land, the legacy of allotment policies which divided up reservation lands more than a century and a half ago. Federal legislation signed in 2020 restored lands illegally taken some 60 years ago. Even with the restoration, Leech Lake still owns just about 6% of the land within its boundaries.
While #LandBack has gained traction with tribal nations over the past few years, it's not just land that's been restored at Leech Lake, but a sense of trust that's being built between federal, state and local government. Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, who is Ojibwe, agrees.
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PEGGY FLANAGAN: Land Back isn't just a hashtag or something you see on a t-shirt or on a flag that is being flown. It is intentional, detailed, hard work that we do together.
OLSON: Leech Lake and Cass County overlap. Neal Gaalswyk, the chair of the Cass County Board of Commissioners, was among the honored guests at the ceremony.
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NEAL GAALSWYK: We are the next-door neighbors of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, and I want you to know that we are thrilled that you are getting your land back.
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OLSON: A decade ago, Leech Lake and Cass County signed a memorandum of agreement.
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GAALSWYK: Before we act, we talk. That's good advice in any relationship. So this attitude, this way of doing business, has transformed - it has literally transformed the relationship between the county and the tribe.
OLSON: The person who started the Land Back movement at Leech Lake was Rich Robinson.
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OLSON: During a hike of some of the restored land, tribal member and land surveyor Dave Bismarck talked about him. He says, as the story goes, Robinson's grandfather had decided he was going to move onto his allotment once he retired.
DAVE BISMARCK: Going out there, he found a Chippewa National Forest gate across the road. He was told that he sold that property, and they sent a check to him.
OLSON: In reality, the land had been transferred illegally by the federal government. Leech Lake's resource management staff honored Rich Robinson, who had passed away before the land restoration was complete, by placing several of his personal effects inside a small monument.
BISMARCK: There's a shotgun shell right out of his gun. There's a fishing lure that was cut right off of his line that he was using.
OLSON: Bismarck says federal surveyors surprised Leech Lake staff last year, telling them they had identified several thousand more acres transferred illegally from the tribe to the National Forest Service, now set to be returned. He says it was a moment of transparency - a sign that government-to-government relationships have improved.
For NPR News, I'm Melissa Olson on the Leech Lake Reservation.
(SOUNDBITE OF KEHLANI SONG, "GET ME STARTED") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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