Through collaborations with tribal entities and governments and public agencies, we have secured — in 120 transactions — 600,000 acres of priority lands and waters across the country that honor Indigenous connections to the land, support Indigenous community goals and, in many cases, ensure access for traditional, ceremonial, educational and subsistence activities. We acknowledge the pace of this work must increase.

Restoring Tribal Homelands

Land acquisition can play an important role in supporting the efforts of tribal governments and communities to regain ownership of their ancestral homelands. Recognizing that Indigenous people are the original stewards of our landscape heritage, we strive to create thoughtful and equitable land stewardship solutions that help meet the needs of the communities with whom we work.

In 2022, we partnered with the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa in Minnesota and the Indian Land Tenure Foundation to complete the largest “Land Back” effort in U.S. history. By returning 28,000 acres to the band, we helped ensure an enduring and sustainable solution that balances environmental protection with economic and cultural benefits for the band and its members.

We’ve had the honor of working with numerous tribes across the United States to complete similar transactions, including the Nanticoke Indian Tribe of Delaware, which, until recently, owned only one acre of its ancestral land and had to lease parkland for its annual powwow. Now, the tribe owns a swath of land adjacent to the Nanticoke Indian Museum — the only Native American museum in Delaware — where it can host tribal functions and educational programs and carry out its mission of sustainable farming on ancestral lands.

Supporting Indigenous Community Goals

Through strategic facilitation with state and federal agencies, we are also helping Indigenous partners meet their goals by protecting sites of cultural importance to their communities. One example is the stunning Fones Cliffs site along Virginia’s Rappahannock River — where the Rappahannock Tribe had an encounter with Capt. John Smith in 1608. For many years we worked to purchase properties along the cliffside that were previously slated for development. Today, the tribe owns a portion of this land, and we are working to return an additional 1,000 acres to it. Other portions have been acquired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and added to the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge honors Rappahannock history and culture, protects critical habitat for wildlife such as bald eagles and is open for public enjoyment.

We’ve helped natural resource agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service establish and expand many important Native American sites on public land. Examples include the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Colorado, Wind Cave National Park in Montana, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska and Machicomoco State Park in Virginia. Protecting culturally significant Indigenous sites as public land creates opportunities to provide educational resources, supports access for traditional and subsistence uses, honors current and ancestral connections to the land, and ensures these sites are preserved for future generations.

Another historic victory occurred in 2022 when the Pedro Bay Corporation, an Alaskan Native corporation, worked with us to conserve more than 44,000 acres of its land through conservation easements in the heart of Bristol Bay. This conservation effort was designed to meet the needs of the Alaska Native corporation and its shareholders by providing revenue and maintaining subsistence and recreational uses, traditional activities and cultural resources. Through these conservation easements, important watersheds for wild salmon and a variety of other wildlife are also protected from the Pebble Mine project.

Learn more about these projects, and others like them, below. If you would like to support this work, please reach out to Claire Cooney or consider making a gift today.