Land Acknowledgment
I live on the ancestral homelands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Lipan Apache, Ute, and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Nations.
These lands are sacred.
Why Land Back Matters
The Land Back movement calls for the return of land, decision-making power, and resources to Indigenous nations. It is not only a demand for property transfer, it is a framework for restoring Indigenous governance, ecological stewardship, and cultural continuity that colonization interrupted. The LANDBACK Action Network is an Indigenous-led, spiritually grounded organizing framework for collective liberation, centered on restoring right relationships with the land and with one another.1
Land Back is also connected to broader movements for justice. The NDN Collective frames it as part of a larger vision in which Black reparations and Indigenous Land Back coexist, with BIPOC collective liberation at the core.2 Importantly, the movement does not ask current residents to vacate their homes, it argues that Indigenous governance over land is sustainable, preferable, and can co-exist with the people already living there.3
A land acknowledgment means the most when it's paired with ongoing action- learning the specific history of the nations named, supporting Indigenous-led organizations financially, through volunteer work, and/or using whatever platform or resources you have to advocate for land return and tribal sovereignty.
Resources on the Land Back Movement
LANDBACK Action Network — An Indigenous-led organizing network building political power around land return, with campaigns, press releases, and ways to get involved.
NDN Collective — LANDBACK Campaign — Information on the LANDBACK campaign and the NDN Collective's broader work on Indigenous liberation, including a LANDBACK Fund.
Native Land Digital — An interactive map and educational resource for identifying whose traditional territory you're on, along with a Territory Acknowledgment Guide for going beyond a single statement.
First Nations Development Institute — Supports Native communities in reacquiring and stewarding land, with real examples of tribes regaining control of forests and other territory.
Local action — Research the indigenous Nations and tribal governments connected to your region and look for opportunities to support them directly through land tax/rent contributions, volunteering, and/or amplifying their advocacy.
Sources Footnotes
LANDBACK Action Network, "Indigenous Lands Back Into Indigenous Hands," landback.org
NDN Collective, "LANDBACK," ndncollective.org/landback
Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative, "Land Back Movement," cbglcollab.org/what-does-land-restitution-mean
The land is cared for and stewarded by these Nations since time immemorial, sustaining their peoples, cultures, languages, ceremonies, and ways of life for thousands of years.
I want to honor these Nations as living, thriving, and sovereign peoples today, not just history. The Arapaho, Cheyenne, Lipan Apache, Ute, and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Nations continue to hold and pass down their languages, ceremonies, art, governance, and deep relationship to this land generation after generation. Their knowledge systems and traditions of stewardship carry sacred wisdom that benefit everyone, and this knowledge is essential for navigating climate change and living in right relationship with the Earth. Indigenous artists, scientists, educators, leaders, and land defenders are actively shaping culture and community today, and it behooves us to follow their lead.
Honoring these Nations also means being honest that the land I live on was stolen through genocide, broken treaties, and forced removal by the United States government- a history that continues to shape the present moment. Naming that history matters and it is not the whole story or the point of this acknowledgment. The fuller truth is one of indigenous sovereignty, resistance, and continuity: these Nations are still here, still governing themselves, still celebrating who they are, and still shaping what comes next.
A land acknowledgment that only looks backward is incomplete. This one is meant to look forward too- toward supporting Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, the return of land itself, and toward celebrating the cultures that have always existed on this land.