In 2020, an environmental non-profit returned over a dozen acres in Oregon to the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes.
Two months later, a conservation group worked with the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County to return more than 1,000 acres in California to the tribal group.
And then late last year, in one of the largest transfers of its kind, an environmental organization returned thousands of acres of wildlife rangeland in Washington state to the Colville Tribes.
Although each agreement was distinct, in recent years an important pattern has emerged of conservationists and Indigenous people working together by way of land transfers. The effect has been twofold: protecting ecologically vital spaces while helping to right historic injustices by returning properties to their original caretakers.
This agreement in October was about 9,243 acres of arid grasslands, dotted with sagebrush, that encompass several canyons in north central Washington state that are valued by biologists as a key corridor linking the Cascade mountain range to the Rocky mountains for lynx, wolverine, wolves and grizzly bears.
It was traditional territory of the Okanagan Tribe, a First Nations and Native American people who spanned across the Canada-US border, and it was part of the original Colville Tribes’ reservation that was stripped away by the federal government in 1892 after gold was discovered.
In recent decades, it has been used as a family ranch. But then when it emerged in recent years that the land would be put up for sale, the environmental non-profit Conservation Northwest attempted to try and get it into the hands of a buyer who would preserve it.
However, according to the non-profit’s executive director, Mitch Friedman, these efforts were continually unsuccessful. Toward the end of last year the land’s ecological and historical elements seemed to align perfectly when tribal officials and the non-profit’s leaders worked to return it to the hands of the Colville Tribes.
“It was, I would say, the best kind of news that we could receive, to get land back,” said Andy Joseph, Jr, chairman of the Colville Business Council, who described stepping back onto the land in late October for a ceremony as a feeling of returning home.
The community, which consists of 12 bands, is known for its substantial natural resources departments and had previously worked closely with Conservation Northwest, most recently to relocate threatened Canada lynx on the reservation.
In early October, after Conservation Northwest fundraised about $4.6m in eight months to purchase the property, and the tribe approved a protective covenant that outlined protections on the land, the group immediately transferred the land’s deed to the Colville Tribes.
Biodiversity
Although Indigenous peoples only make up about 5% of the world’s population, their territories encompass 80% of global biodiversity, according to the 2020 report The Indigenous World. And nature on Indigenous peoples’ lands is “generally declining less rapidly” than other land, according to a 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
Today, it’s clear conservationists have been looking to traditional ecological knowledge in their work. At the same time, environmental organizations and tribes have been coming together to protect the natural world, and a key part of this teamwork has been land transfers.
In September, the Nature Conservancy transferred the 132-acre Safe Harbor Marsh Preserve along the west shore of Flathead Lake to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana. The Indigenous community has a large natural resources department and developed a strong relationship with the environmental organization. They also have a long history with the preserve.
Once a part of the tribe’s reservation, the marsh had been lost, along with thousands of other acres, through a pair of federal allotment acts in the early 1900’s. Chairwoman Shelly Fyant said they had made it a point to try to buy these properties back, but faced challenges with skyrocketing costs. She said they were extremely happy when the Nature Conservancy leaders approached them about the marsh.
“It’s just so amazing and, you know, really heartwarming that we have allies that understand us. They understand what our goals are, you know, in the big picture,” she said. “It’s not about money; it’s not about making a profit or capitalism or development. It’s about conserving it for future generations, so that our descendants can enjoy that.”
The tribe passed a resolution specifying that the site will be dedicated to conservation, wildlife and cultural uses. Chairwoman Fyant explained that they’re working to integrate it into theirmanagement plan and to preserve the marsh for the waterfowl and other migratory birds.
But at the same time, tribes are in no way a monolithic group. And there have been instances of Indigenous communities’ work running afoul of conservation efforts.
The Navajo Nation Council, for example, recently spoke out in opposition of the Biden administration’s proposed ban on oil and gas drilling around Chaco Canyon. At the same time, the Makah Tribe has spent years working to regain its whaling rights, which has put them at odds with several conservation groups.
Jill Sherman-Warne, executive director of the Native American Environmental Protection Coalition and former elected official of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, explained that given all of the ignored treaties and other agreements cast aside, tribes have been left to take care of themselves. And in some cases that may mean logging, gaming, tourism or other practices that don’t necessarily align with conservation.
But overall, she said, tribes are incredibly effective protectors of the natural world.
“Tribal people have in their histories knowledge that before geologists or hydrologists can prove scientific fact,” she said. “Tribes have stories about the environment that existed before any of the science, which now is proving their oral histories to be true.”
Serra Hoagland, a biologist and tribal liaison for the US Forest Service, said that traditional ecological knowledge and western science can complement each other very well. Citing a 2012 Journal of Forestry study, she explained that while western science tends to be more concreteand look in short time periods, traditional knowledge is often more abstract and looks in longer time periods.
“You commonly hear throughout Indian Country, tribes and Native people talking about the seventh generation,” said Hoagland, a Member of Pueblo of Laguna. “And that’s because we’re thinking that far ahead into the future about our decisions that we’re making today.”
Conservation plan
Today, officials within the Confederated Tribes of the Colville reservation have started putting together a conservation management plan guided by traditional knowledge and western science for the recently returned land.
Cody Desautel, natural resources division director for the Colville Tribes, said the process will probably take about six months and involve examining the species on the property, the condition of the land and the types of improvements that may need to be made.
One of the species he said he anticipates being a priority is endangered sharp-tailed grouse, which are known to have breeding grounds on the land. The Colville Tribes also plans to conduct a cultural plant inventory to identify those culturally significant to the tribe.
They may also be seeing two additional pieces of land returned in the coming months. The Methow Conservancy recently purchased more than 300 acres and has announced its plans to give it to the tribe. And after Conservation Northwest was able to raise about $300,000 over the amount needed for the previously returned land, they plan to help the tribe with closing costs on another property within that same corridor.
Chairman Joseph said given the importance of returning land and their shared caretaking goals, he hopes to see others follow suit.
He explained that it is their traditional and cultural belief that “as long as we take care of the land, the animals, the foods, the medicines and the water, they’ll always be here for us”.
“It seems like the conservationists feel the same way.”
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