Give Land Back
Land coming back, land under threat, and votes coming up.
Navajo citizens choose between Crystalyne Curley and Justin Jones for president on November 3, with land, water and uranium mining among the issues voters raised.
Navajo citizens can vote in person through October 30 or on election day.ICT
Massachusetts voters decide November 3 on a conservation fund that could pay tribal governments and protect lands of indigenous cultural significance, with Indigenous members on its board.
Read the official Question 6 summary before you vote.Boston.com
In October 2026, the Siletz Tribe was finishing its purchase of nearly seven acres at Rocky Shores near Yachats, land that was part of its 1855 Coast Reservation.
OPB (from Underscore Native News)
On September 30 Gov. Newsom vetoed bills to protect tribal sacred sites on state land and give tribes a role in water disputes; the Karuk and Shingle Springs Miwok objected.
CalMatters
Oak Flat now belongs to Resolution Copper, and on September 29 eleven Ninth Circuit judges urged the Supreme Court to step in for the San Carlos Apache.
Native News Online
After Trump cut Bears Ears by about 90 percent in July, miners filed 16 claims on the removed land in September; tribes and NARF are fighting the cuts in court.
Grist
Federal crews began pre-construction work for a border wall through the Tohono O'odham Nation in August; a judge denied the tribe's request to stop it, and the lawsuit continues.
ICT
The Hualapai Tribe banned hyperscale data centers on its reservation in September, and the Navajo Nation's LeChee Chapter opposes a planned data center on land sold by Page.
KJZZ
After the Michigan Supreme Court ordered a new review of the Line 5 tunnel in July, four tribes asked state regulators in September to overturn its wetlands permits.
Earthjustice
In September 2026, the Penobscot Nation received about 11,000 acres near Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, the first phase of a 30,000-acre return.
Bangor Daily News
In September 2026, the Fort Sill Apache Tribe bought 55 acres in Arizona's Dragoon Mountains, near Cochise Stronghold, through the Trust for Public Land.
KJZZ
A Lipan Apache community sued over border construction in Big Bend National Park; a judge extended a pause on ground work in late August, and status may have changed.
Texas Public Radio
A proposed rewrite of historic preservation rules would make tribal consultation optional and exclude landscapes; NCAI and tribal preservation officers oppose it, and a comment period is expected.
ICT
USDA proposed ending the Roadless Rule in August; Tlingit & Haida and 11 other Southeast Alaska tribes oppose it and say they were not consulted; comments closed September 21.
Alaska's News Source
Lyon County approved rezoning for the Monarch data center near Yerington on August 6; the Yerington Paiute and Walker River Paiute tribes formally oppose it.
The Nevada Independent
In summer 2026, Big Sur Land Trust returned 84 acres beside Highway 68 near Monterey to the Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation, which blessed the land on August 1.
KAZU
In July 2026, a federal appeals court agreed that Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline is trespassing on the Bad River Reservation in Wisconsin and must eventually be removed.
WPR
On July 30 a federal appeals court agreed Enbridge's Line 5 is trespassing on Bad River Band land but sent the shutdown timeline back to a lower court.
Pipeline & Gas Journal
Utah approved a no-bid sale of 50,000 acres in the Book Cliffs to its wildlife agency in June, which blocked the Ute Indian Tribe from bidding; the tribe is suing.
Salt Lake Tribune
The BLM proposes lifting the 10-mile drilling buffer around Chaco Canyon; Pueblo leaders asked for more time, the comment period closed July 29, and no final decision is reported yet.
KRWG
The Lummi Nation sued a telecom company that trenched near sacred burial grounds at Point Roberts; a court in July ordered 30 days' notice before more digging.
Native News Online
The July 13 order shrinking Bears Ears also ended the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Commission, which gave five tribal nations a formal role in managing the land.
High Country News
Arizona allowed higher arsenic levels in groundwater under the Pinyon Plain uranium mine on July 6, over objections from the Havasupai Tribe, whose only drinking water is that aquifer.
KNAU
The Dewey-Burdock uranium project in the Black Hills is restarting South Dakota permitting after winning federal permits; the Oglala Sioux Tribe and NDN Collective oppose it.
KOTA
In July 2026, the United Methodist Church gave a 270-acre former camp in Cabot, Vermont, to the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation.
WCAX
On June 30, 2026, Save the Redwoods League transferred 125 acres on Prairie Creek in Orick, at the edge of Redwood National and State Parks, to the Yurok Tribe.
Yurok Tribe
The Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe sued in June to stop removal of 624 wild horses from ancestral land at Montgomery Pass; the outcome is not yet reported.
Native News Online
On June 12, 2026, the Justice Department filed to move more than 45,000 acres of Arizona state trust land into federal trust for the Hopi Tribe.
U.S. Department of Justice
On June 12, 2026, Chesapeake Conservancy transferred 704 acres at Fones Cliffs in Richmond County, Virginia, bringing the Rappahannock Tribe's holdings there to 2,391 acres.
Tribal Business News
In June 2026, the Pueblo of Pojoaque bought 470 acres of former private land in the Pojoaque Valley of northern New Mexico, with help from Western Rivers Conservancy.
First Nations Development Institute
In June 2026, Dane County, Wisconsin, bought and gave the Ho-Chunk Nation 165 acres at Lower Mud Lake, including 22 ancient burial mounds.
PBS Wisconsin
In June 2026, the Mi'kmaq Nation took title to Mesgilg Maqamigew, a nearly 3,400-acre parcel near Bridgewater, Maine, more than doubling the tribe's land.
Portland Press Herald
In June 2026, the U.S. House passed a bill letting five Southeast Alaska Native communities left out of the 1971 claims law form corporations and receive land.
Alaska Public Media
Federal officials cleared Dakota Access to keep operating under Lake Oahe in May; the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe rejected the review and says its legal funds are running low.
ICT
A former Northwestern Shoshone chairman says burial mounds lie near the Stratos data center in Box Elder County, Utah, which county commissioners approved in May.
Salt Lake Tribune
Hudbay is advancing the Copper World open-pit mine in the Santa Rita Mountains, which the Tohono O'odham Nation calls sacred; Pima County officials raised concerns in May.
KJZZ
The Yakama Nation opposes the federally licensed Goldendale pumped-storage project on a sacred site above the Columbia River, which may power a data center; legal challenges continue.
Street Roots
The Senate voted in April to end a 20-year mining ban near the Boundary Waters; the Bois Forte Band says it threatens 1854 Treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather.
Bois Forte Band
A House farm bill advanced in March would permanently bar returning the 9,500-acre Fort Reno to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes; later action is unconfirmed.
Tribal Business News
A March lease sale in Alaska's petroleum reserve included long-protected land near Teshekpuk Lake; Nuiqsut groups have sued, and a judge reinstated their protected area agreement.
Alaska Public Media
A federal court in March let five tribes join a lawsuit over Chuckwalla National Monument in California, which the tribes helped create and co-steward.
Turtle Talk
The company behind the Pebble mine is suing to overturn the EPA's veto, while the Bristol Bay Native Association, representing 31 tribes, defends it; no final ruling yet.
Anchorage Daily News
In March 2026, conservation partners and the state returned 656 acres in upper Palm Canyon, in the Santa Rosa Mountains near Palm Springs, to the Agua Caliente Band.
NBC Palm Springs
In March 2026, partners bought 600 acres in the Adirondacks for the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center, bringing land in its care to more than 900 acres.
Seneca Nation SNI News
After Trump dropped a salmon deal, a federal judge in February ordered more water released at eight Columbia and Snake River dams, backed by the Nez Perce and Yakama.
OPB
In February 2026, the Washoe Tribe's land trust finished buying the 10,274-acre former Loyalton Ranch north of Reno, the largest tribal land return in the Sierra Nevada.
KOLO 8 News Now
In February 2026, NDN Collective transferred a parcel on Sea Otter Island in Orca Inlet, near Cordova, Alaska, to the Eyak Community Land Trust.
Tribal Business News
A federal judge sent the dispute over who owns minerals under the Missouri River on the Fort Berthold Reservation to trial; no trial date was set as of January.
KFYR
The Gwich'in Steering Committee and allies renewed their lawsuit in January to stop oil leasing on the Arctic Refuge coastal plain, where the caribou they rely on give birth.
Anchorage Daily News
In December 2025, the Klamath Indigenous Land Trust, formed by leaders of four Klamath Basin tribes, bought 10,000 acres around the former dam reservoirs from PacifiCorp.
Active NorCal
In December 2025, Pacific Forest Trust returned nearly 900 acres on Henness Ridge, bordering Yosemite National Park, to the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation after 175 years.
Sierra News Online
On October 31, 2025, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration returned their Marywood retreat land in Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin, to the Lac du Flambeau Band for $30,000.
NPR (via High Plains Public Radio)
In 2025, the Kootzaduka'a Tribe bought 160 acres called Tupe Nobe above Mono Lake near Lee Vining, the tribe's first land, with a state conservancy grant.
Sierra Nevada Conservancy
In October 2025, the Tule River Tribe celebrated the return of more than 17,000 acres of former ranch land bordering Giant Sequoia National Monument in California.
California Native Plant Society (Flora)
In September 2025, the descendant-led nonprofit Nā ʻŌiwi O Puʻuanahulu took ownership of 27 beachfront acres at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Kapalaoa on Hawaiʻi Island, protected for good.
Hawaiʻi Public Radio
On August 2, 2025, the Presbytery of San Gabriel returned its former La Casa de San Gabriel community center land to the Gabrieleno-Tongva Band of Mission Indians.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
On July 18, 2025, the Esselen Tribe bought back 1,720 acres in Upper Carmel Valley, including the village site Cappanay, with The Wildlands Conservancy and state funding.
The Wildlands Conservancy
In June 2025, the Yurok Tribe finished reclaiming 47,000 acres along the Klamath River in Northern California, including the Blue Creek watershed, the largest land return in state history.
ICT News
In May 2025, Oregon rescinded a 1980 agreement that limited Siletz hunting and fishing, following a federal court order, restoring the tribe's full rights after 45 years.
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
In April 2025, the Rappahannock Tribe got nearly 1,000 acres along the Rappahannock River in Virginia from The Conservation Fund, its largest land return to date.
Rappahannock Tribe (reposting Virginia Mercury)
In March 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finished moving 680 acres in Benson County, North Dakota, back into trust for the Spirit Lake Nation.
U.S. Department of the Interior
In March 2025, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law giving the roughly 1,500-acre Shabbona Lake State Park back to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.
KCUR (Kansas City Public Radio)
In January 2025, Western Rivers Conservancy handed the 327-acre Pico Blanco property in Big Sur, which the tribe calls the center of the Esselen world, to the Esselen Tribe.
Western Rivers Conservancy
On January 14, 2025, President Biden created the 624,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument near Joshua Tree after a campaign led by local tribes.
Associated Press (via WKMG News 6)
On January 14, 2025, President Biden created the roughly 225,000-acre Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in Northern California, which the Pit River Tribe worked for years to protect.
Associated Press (via WKMG News 6)