#Land Back

[thoughtportal]

The US Military in Hawaii

[reasonsforhope]

"A tribal-led nonprofit is creating a network of native bison ranchers that are restoring ecosystems on the Great Plains, restoring native ranchers’ connections with their ancestral land, and restoring the native diet that their ancestors relied on.

Called the Tanka Fund, they coordinate donors and partners to help ranchers secure grazing land access, funds needed to install and repair fencing, increase their herd sizes, and access markets for bison meat across the country.

That’s the human part of the story. But as Dawn Sherman, executive director of the Tanka Fund, told Native Sun News, they’re “buffalo people” and these four-legged, 2,000 lbs. “cousins” are equal-part-protagonists.

The return of the bison means the return of the prairie, one of the three great grassland ecosystems on the planet, of which just 1% remains as it was when the Mayflower arrived.

“Bringing buffalo back to their ancestral homelands is essential to restoring the ecosystem. We know that the buffalo is a keystone species,” said Dawn Sherman, a member of the Lakota, Delaware, Shawnee, and Cree.

“Bringing the buffalo back to the land and to our people, helps restore the ecosystem and everything it supports from the animals to the plants to the people. It’s come full circle. That’s how we see it.”

As Sherman and the Tanka Fund help native ranchers grow their operations, everyone is well aware of the power of the bison to transform the environment: just as nations across Europe are, who are reintroducing wood bison to various ecosystems, for all the same reasons.

Sherman points out the variety of ways in which buffalo anchor the prairie ecosystem. The almost-extinct black-footed ferret, she points out, lived symbiotically with the bison, and with the latter gone, the former followed—nearly.

The long-billed curlew uses bison dung as a disguise to hide nests from predators. Deer, pronghorn antelope, and elk all rely on bison to plow through deep snows and uncover the grasses that these smaller animals can’t reach.

Everywhere the bison hurls its massive body, life springs in the beast’s wake. When bison roll about on the plains, it creates depressions known as wallows. These fill with rainwater and create enormous puddles where amphibians and insects thrive and reproduce. Certain plants evolved to grow in the wet conditions of the wallows which Native Americans harvested for food and medicine.

Native plants evolved under the trampling hooves of millions of bison, and that constant tamping down of the Earth is a key necessity in the spreading of native wildflower seed.

Indeed, Sherman says some of these native ranchers are bringing bison onto lands still visibly affected by the Dust Bowl, and already the animals are acting like a giant wooly cure-all for the land’s ills.

Since 2020, the Tanka Fund, in partnership with the Inter-Tribal Buffalo Council and the Nature Conservancy, has overseen the transfer of 2,300 bison from Nature Conservancy reserves to lands managed by ranchers within the Tanka Fund network.

“[T]he more animals that we can get the more of that prairie we can restore,” said Sherman. “We can help restore the land that has been plowed and has been leased out to cattle ranchers.”"

-Article via Good News Network, February 13, 2025. Video via Tanka Fund, July 17, 2024.

[olowan-waphiya]

indigenous stewardship is a necessity. give the land back.

[kropotkindersurprise]

October 21, 2024 - Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal member of Australia's parliament told King Charles some truths as he was giving a speech in Canberra. [video]

[lore-gore]

Hey so apparently the Trump administration is trying to include Natives in his unconstitutional birthright citizenship end order. They haven't been non citizens since 1924. He trying to fucking reverse the Snyder Act.

A lot, if not all, of his plans impact natives in some way. Remember to keep advocating for native rights.

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

With international attention focused on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Israel is violently and rapidly stealing more and more Palestinian land in the West Bank.

Israel’s most genocidal leaders are seeing through plans to force as many Palestinians out of their homes as possible in order to ensure they can never return.

“For every country that unilaterally recognizes a Palestinian state, we will establish a [illegal] settlement,” said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Let’s be clear, stealing Palestinians land has been Israel’s goal since day 1. It’s illegal, it’s wrong, and it must be stopped.

No one is above international law. The Biden administration should be pushing Israel to abide by international law, not enabling its war crimes against Palestinians.

Like all people, Palestinians deserve to be safe and free in their homes.

[muffinlevelchicanery]

[radicalgraff]

Anti-colonial graffiti seen along the highway on the Nullabor plain, Western Australia

[doodlepede]

landback is not a privilege we allow indigenous people to indulge in as a treat for being likeable and unproblematic btw. there are no ifs ands or yeah buts about this. either you believe indigenous people have the right to sovereignty and self determination in their native land or you don't, full stop

[gaylienz]

pissed about the wild fires? land back.

pissed about climate change? land back.

pissed about shitty politicians? land back.

pissed that this nation cares more about money than people? give the land back to the indigenous peoples it was stolen from in the first place.

pissed about colonialism in other nations? give the land back. it starts at home.

the number one solution should be decolonization and returning the stolen land back to the proper stewardships so that we can focus on healing the land and the connection we have to it.

[autisticexpression2]

Seeing a lot of posts about the Palestinian flag, and it got me thinking about indigenous flags around the world.

Māori:

Kalaallit Nunaat:

Haudenosaunee

Nunatsiavut:

Australian Aboriginal:

Torres Strait Islands:

Rapa Nui:

Kurdistan:

Sami:

Ainu:

Of course, these are just a handful. May they all reclaim their stolen lands.

[reasonsforhope]

"In a historic “first-of-its-kind” agreement the government of British Colombia has acknowledged the aboriginal ownership of 200 islands off the west coast of Canada.

The owners are the Haida nation, and rather than the Canadian government giving something to a First Nation, the agreement admits that the “Xhaaidlagha Gwaayaai” or the “islands at the end of world,” always belonged to them, a subtle yet powerful difference in the wording of First Nations negotiating.

BC Premier David Eby called the treaty “long overdue” and once signed, will clear the way for half a million hectares (1.3 million acres) of land to be managed by the Haida.

Postal service, shipping lanes, school and community services, private property rights, and local government jurisdiction, will all be unaffected by the agreement, which will essentially outline that the Haida decide what to do with the 200 or so islands and islets.

“We could be facing each other in a courtroom, we could have been fighting each other for years and years, but we chose a different path,” said Minister of Indigenous Relations of BC, Murray Rankin at the signing ceremony, who added that it took creativity and courage to “create a better world for our children.”

Indeed, making the agreement outside the courts of the formal treaty process reflects a vastly different way of negotiating than has been the norm for Canada.

“This agreement won’t only raise all boats here on Haida Gwaii – increase opportunity and prosperity for the Haida people and for the whole community and for the whole province – but it will also be an example and another way for nations – not just in British Columbia, but right across Canada – to have their title recognized,” said Eby.

In other words, by deciding this outside court, Eby and the province of BC hope to set a new standard for how such land title agreements are struck."

-via Good News Network, April 18, 2024

[damnesdelamer]

HAPPY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' DAY TO THE RIGHTFUL CUSTODIANS OF TURTLE ISLAND AND THE RIGHTFUL CUSTODIANS OF OCCUPIED PALESTINE! SOLIDARITY WITH THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE WORLD!

[embraceyourdestiny]

to any americans who feel "paralyzed" and "dont know what to do" to help with gaza:

reading a fucking book. i beg of you.

in a time of knowledge suppression is it your duty to arm yourself with knowledge.

read about americas occupations in the middle east.

read about 9/11 from outside of america and see how they inflicted senseless harm and violence to countless amounts of people and have been suppressing your rights for the past 2 fucking decades.

read about any of the countless wars from the past 30 years. especially from a civilian's. and the victims and survivors' perspective. listen to the horror stories and do not plug your fucking ears as to what your country is doing.

and read about fucking gaza and palestine and keep up with what is happening no matter how "sad" or "uncountable" you might get.

dont look away from this.

you dont have the right to be comfortable during countless active genocides.

if you're knowledgeable, you're powerful, and our current state doesnt fucking want that.

you have the power to change things if you open your eyes and scream to the world.

wake the fuck up.

Edit: please check the reblogs there are readings and ways to help