Returning Land, Reshaping Futures: Centering Indigenous Agency in Climate Migration

Hannah Teicher

Returning Land, Reshaping Futures: Centering Indigenous Agency in Climate Migration

Hannah Teicher

Returning Land, Reshaping Futures: Centering Indigenous Agency in Climate Migration

Returning Land, Reshaping Futures:

Centering Indigenous Agency in Climate

Migration

Course Instructor

Hannah Teicher

Teaching Assistant

Inmo Kang

Students

Caleb Martin, Harvard Law School

Cam McCartin, Harvard Divinity School

emily corbiere bates, Harvard Divinity School

Emily Hill, Harvard Divinity School

Lila Rimalovski, Harvard Divinity School

Tess Dufrechou, Harvard Divinity School

Odessa Chitty, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Client

Climigration Network

Introduction

Image Credit: Lila Rimalovski

Image Credit: Lila Rimalovski

Acknowledgement

This report was informed and shaped by conversations with Ward Lyles; Shanasia Sylman; Eric Henson (Chickasaw Nation); Principal Chief of the United Houma Nation Lora Ann Chaisson; Meade Krosby; Jessica Hench; Maggie Osthues and Kristin Marcell of the Climigration Network; Chief Devon Parfait, Elder Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar, and Deputy Chief Crystlyn Rodrigue of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of BiloxiChitimacha-Choctaw; and Twyla Thurmond from the Village of Shishmaref.

We extend our gratitude to Ward Lyles and Sarah Deer, creators of the #Landback North America Map, for aggregating data on 100+ Land Back initiatives across Turtle Island. We utilized information from this map to develop an analysis of 10 cases mapped across five key leverage points, borrowed from the framework developed in Climate Adaptation Barriers and Needs Experienced by Northwest Coastal Tribes.

We recognize and offer gratitude to the Massachusett people whose unceded lands nourished this project. This project benefited from the support of the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative.

1. #Landback North America,” ArcGIS StoryMaps, accessed April 15, 2025, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b5fd4cc7b73944d6ad86f9935896c593.

2. Hasert, R., C. Countryman, A. Marchand., M. Poe, K. Avery, and M. Krosby. 2024. Climate Adaptation Barriers and Needs Experienced by Northwest Coastal Tribes: Key Findings from Tribal Listening Sessions. A collaborative product of the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, and Washington Sea Grant.

Statement of Intent

As the impacts of climate change reach more communities across Turtle Island, we, as graduate students at Harvard University, contribute the following research to uplift the present necessity for resources and power to shift towards Indigenous communities in the midst of ongoing catastrophe. We recognize climate change as a continuous symptom of colonization, and we hope to reveal a path forward for the field of climate adaptation to center the agency of Indigenous nations. While we hope this report offers helpful resources for those already working at this precise intersection, we wish to emphasize the need for more research and resources to flow in that direction. We begin with deep gratitude to all of the Indigenous leaders and communities whose lived experience shaped our research, and we dedicate our writing to the sovereignty and flourishing of all Native nations.

We direct our findings towards academic institutions, institutions in the climate migration field, and Native nations seeking the reclamation of land and resources. As a collective of non-Native students embarking on this project, we aim to utilize our positions within the university to amplify the needs and visions of the Indigenous communities to whom this work is in service.

3. While many have asserted this relationship, we cite the IPCC’s 2022 report which recognized “the significant role colonialism has played in heating our planet and destroying its

4. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), (2022). Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by Hans-Otto Pörtner, Debra C. Roberts, et al. https://www. ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/.

Methodology

Our semester-length project aimed to explore the contemporary dynamics of migration due to climate disruptions, specifically examining opportunities for Indigenous reclamation of land ownership, stewardship, or management (Land Back) amidst efforts to relocate. We put these concepts into practice through research for the Climigration Network (CN), our non-profit client, who sought guidance on this topic to directly support Indigenous communities in their network. Our research methodology included the following features.

• Literature review on the intersection of climate migration and Land Back (see Additional Sources for select materials)

• Conversations with 12 leaders in the movement, representing 4 Indigenous nations

• Examination of 100+ Land Back Map case studies, condensed to an in-depth study of 10 cases mapped across 5 key data points

• Survey of existing resources, toolkits, and organizations dedicated to Land Back

• Two presentations and discussions with members of the Climigration Network

5. Our case study research was inspired by the enablers and barriers of agency determined by the “Climate Adaptation Barriers And Needs Experienced By Northwest Coastal Tribe” study designed by the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative’s Tribal Coastal Resilience Portfolio, which is co-led by the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians and the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, with partners Washington Sea Grant and Western Washington University.

6. Hasert, R., et al., (2024). Climate Adaptation Barriers and Needs Experienced by Northwest Coastal Tribes: Key Findings from Tribal Listening Sessions. https://cig.uw.edu/projects/ climate-adaptation-barriers-and-needs-experienced-by-northwest-coastal-tribes-key-findings-from-tribal-listening-sessions/.

Image Credit: #Landback North America ArcGIS StoryMaps

Section I: Framing & Context

Image Credit: Lila Rimalovski

Our Focus

Figure

Linking Land Back and Climate Migration

The Land Back movement seeks to restore Indigenous jurisdiction and stewardship over traditional lands and marks an integral part of decolonization. Settler colonialism is a persistent, ongoing way of maintaining power and operates on a logic of land dispossession and destruction of traditional ways of life. Territoriality is a specific and irreducible element of settler colonialism. Thus, land restitution is key to achieving justice for Native nations and supporting their self-determination.

Prominent scholars of decolonization argue that “decolonization is not a metaphor.” In an academic context, decolonization efforts often focus on adopting new methodologies and changing perspectives. However, we must endeavor towards decolonization as a specific process that mandates the rematriation of Indigenous land and life, actively challenges existing power structures, and redistributes resources.

There are two very broad ways in which climate change and Land Back initiatives are connected, one of which is our focus. First, climate change is an effect of land stewardship practices. The ways in which land is managed, whether economically, culturally, or agriculturally, in

turn effects greenhouse gas emissions, local and regional ecologies, and global climate-implicated industries (e.g. tourism, timber, hunting). Second, climate change causes the need for adaptation, including migration, which is one strategy among many. This latter relationship between climate change and Land Back initiatives is our focus (Fig.1).

We do not seek to evaluate Indigenous land stewardship practices and their impact on climate; rather, we seek to understand how the need for Land Back initiatives as an adaptation strategy is caused by climate change. We hope this will expand understanding of the contexts and processes of Land Back initiatives and how this work can ultimately expand tribal agency.

Climate vulnerability today is directly tied to historical dispossession of land. At the same time, Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by climate change. Land Back represents one strategy for climate adaptation and mitigation that centers Indigenous stewardship and Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Image Credit: Lila Rimalovski

There is a powerful and emerging intersection between climate migration realities and the Land Back movement, which presents a model for rethinking land relationships and situating them within a fundamental ethic of Indigenous self-determination.

Our coursework has focused on climate migration, which is one of many different adaptation strategies that an individual or community may choose when adapting to a changing climate. There are many forms that migration can take, and there are many factors that inform whether a community decides to move or stay in place. These factors may be cultural, practical, economic, or otherwise. The agency to choose one’s adaptation strategy is particularly salient for communities determining a pathway forward.

With this in mind, our review of Land Back initiatives focused on a variety of factors to understand how they may expand or contract tribal agency. Successful initiatives often expand tribal agency and increase the possible pathways that can be taken in response to a changing climate. In this way, Land Back initiatives not only make migration available as a climate adaptation strategy, but also, and more importantly, expand overall tribal agency and, in turn, overall adaptive capacity to climate change.

Tribal agency is a primary factor for all parties to consider throughout the whole process of climate migration and land return. But it remains important to consider how land return may be a necessary but insufficient step in expanding tribal agency. Rematriation of land may increase the climate adaptation potential of a tribe, but it may not always increase tribal agency per se. For example, there are some instances in which rematriation of land may expand economic or cultural opportunities for a tribe, which in turn foster climate resilience; however, if staffing capacity remains low, then stewardship of new rematriated lands may further burden a tribal administration trying to serve its community in other capacities, or may require partnership with other entities, such as state or federal agencies, that could ultimately limit tribal agency and their plans for stewardship.

As a result, we see tribal agency as a primary factor that comes to bear upon Land Back initiatives, which in turn determines a tribe’s overall adaptive capacity to a changing climate. It is for each tribe to decide whether a certain Land Back opportunity will expand or burden tribal agency, or what condition must be present in order to foster tribal agency throughout any given process of land return. In our review of Land Back cases and literature, we have come to understand that Land Back, particularly in the context of climate change, is not only about material return of land, but also, and perhaps more fundamentally, about restoring and expanding tribal agency writ large.

7. Wolfe, P. (2006). Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ full/10.1080/14623520601056240.

8. Chin, W.Y. (2022). “ We Want Our Land Back”: Returning Land to First Peoples in the Land Return Era Using the Native Land Claims Commission to Reverse Centuries of Land Dispossession. Scholar, 24, p.335. https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/schom24&div=12&id=&page=.

9. Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. https://clas.osu.edu/sites/clas.osu.edu/files/Tuck%20 and%20Yang%202012%20Decolonization%20is%20not%20 a%20metaphor.pdf.

10. Farrell, J., Burow, P. B., McConnell, K., Bayham, J., Whyte, K., & Koss, G. (2021). Effects of land dispossession and forced migration on Indigenous peoples in North America. Science, 374(6567), eabe4943. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/34709911/.

11. Bronen, R. (2011). Climate-induced community relocations: Creating an adaptive governance framework based in human rights doc-trine. New York University Review of Law and Social Change, 35(2), pp.356–406. https://unfccc.int/files/adaptation/ groups_committees/loss_and_damage_executive_committee/ application/pdf/bronen_climate_induced_community_relocations_creating_an__adaptive_governance_framework_based_in_ human_rights_doctrine_2011.pdf

12. Jessee, N., (2022). Reshaping Louisiana’s coastal frontier: Managed retreat as colonial decontextualization. Journal of Political Ecology, 29(1), pp.277-301. https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/article/2835/galley/5005/view/.

13. Whyte, K., (2017). Indigenous climate change studies: Indigenizing futures, decolonizing the Anthropocene. English language notes, 55(1), pp.153-162. https://kylewhyte.marcom.cal. msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2018/07/IndigenousClimateChangeStudies.pdf.

14. Yumagulova, L., Parsons, M., Yellow Old Woman-Munro, D., Dicken, E., Lambert, S., Vergustina, N., ... & Black, W. (2023). Indigenous perspectives on climate mobility justice and displacement-mobility-immobility continuum. Climate and Development, pp.1-18.

15. Zickgraf, C. (2021). Theorizing (im)mobility in the face of environmental change. Regional Environmental Change, 21(4), 126

Section II: Promising Directions for Future Research

Image Credit: Lila Rimalovski

Investigating the Land Back Cluster Effect

Our preliminary analysis of the relationship between Land Back and climate migration opens up several promising directions for further research. After researching Land Back case studies, surveying Land Back toolkits, and consulting with the Climigration Network and several of their tribal partners, we have outlined further research areas we believe to be most immediately useful to understand how Land Back can increase tribal capacity to respond to the changing climate. 16

The #LandBack North America StoryMap, a visualization of cases of Land Back in the U.S. developed by Dr. Ward Lyles and Professor Sarah Deer at the University of Kansas, indicates that Land Back cases appear to “cluster” together geographically. This suggests that new instances of Land Back may be more likely in regions where it has already occured. In a paper under review, McKalee Steen et al. note that while politics and Indigenous regional presence may be correlated with a cluster effect, the phenomenon remains poorly understood. If the clustering effect is significant, it may suggest the power of building coalition capacity and narratives. It may also indicate the potential traction and dispersed scalability of the Land Back movement. However, these are enthusiastic conjectures.

Further data analysis could explore the extent to which these initial observations are confirmed empirically. Accompanying qualitative research could also identify the factors that contribute to the cluster effect and contribute meaningfully to future Land Back strategy.

16. Tribal presence may actually be inversely correlated with clustering; perhaps suggesting that where settlers already feel the presence of Indigenous peoples they may be less likely to return land. Steen, M., Sylman, S., Stevens, L., Deer, S. and Lyles, W. (under review). Beyond Words: An Empirical Examination of the #LandBack Movement.

Understanding the Role of Treaty Rights

One of the case studies we researched leveraged disregarded treaty rights in a novel and creative way to help achieve Land Back. We highlight this case because we hope researchers can build on this example and identify other places where a similarly inventive maneuver could succeed.

In 1855, the Treaty of Point No Point between the government of Washington territory and the Port Gamble S’Klallam enshrined the tribe’s “reserved hunting, fishing, and gathering rights” and “appropriations for [its] use and benefit.” However, the tribe was illegally dispossessed of their land by settlers establishing a timber company and forcibly relocated.

In 2013, when Pope Resources, the parent organization of that timber company, planned to develop the land that by right belonged to the Port Gamble S’Klallam tribe, the tribe threatened to block the development by appealing to the Army Corps of Engineers on the grounds that it further violated their treaty rights. This maneuver brought Pope Resources to the negotiating table so that the tribe was able to block the

development and eventually purchase more than 900 acres in 2019.

Though treaty rights did not give the Port Gamble S’Klallam a direct vehicle to reclaim their land, it nonetheless provided the Tribe legal leverage at the negotiating table and may be an avenue to explore for other treaty-holding Tribes. Conducting interviews with individuals involved in this transaction and others like it could help organizers better understand the roles that treaties may play in the Land Back movement.

17. For example, see “Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe Comments for the Land-into-Trust Consultation,” https://www.bia.gov/ sites/default/files/dup/assets/as-ia/raca/pdf/46%20-%20 Port%20Gamble%20SKlallam%20Tribe.pdf.

18. VanSomeren, L. (2022).. “Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and Rayonier Negotiate Historic Deals to Purchase Land Back,” Native News Online. https://nativenewsonline.net/sovereignty/ port-gamble-s-klallam-tribe-and-rayonier-negotiate-historicdeals-to-purchase-land-back.

Image Credit: Suzanne Brandkamp, CC BY-SA 4.0

Increasing the Flow of Generalized Funds and Access to Expertise

After conducting six listening sessions with 40 Indigenous participants (representing 13 Pacific Northwest tribes), Hasert et al. identified several interrelated barriers and needs for effective tribal climate response. Among them was the difficulty acquiring flexible, unrestricted, and longer-term funding in alignment with tribal priorities. Instead, grants are often piecemeal and use-restricted. This makes the likely interwoven tribal adaptation needs for land remediation, housing, other infrastructure development, and community relocation extremely difficult to fund and slow to execute.

As the landscape of funding radically shifts under the current administration, identifying and accruing sources of funding that are unrestricted, more easily accessible, and perhaps less federally reliant is critical.

19. Hasert, R., et al., (2024). Climate Adaptation Barriers and Needs Experienced by Northwest Coastal Tribes: Key Findings from Tribal Listening Sessions. https://cig.uw.edu/projects/ climate-adaptation-barriers-and-needs-experienced-by-northwest-coastal-tribes-key-findings-from-tribal-listening-sessions/.

For example, the Indian Land Capital Company offers customized, flexible loans on full faith and credit to Native Nations. Though small, the Decolonizing Wealth Fund, an organization with a reparations and community fundraising model, offers a one-year $50,000 to $75,000 untethered grant specifically to Tribes and Indigenous coalitions working towards power-building and climate action. Similarly, Justice Funders works to transform the philanthropic landscape to finance just transition. Partnerships with such organizations could facilitate the movement of unrestricted funds to tribes leveraging Land Back to promote their climate resiliency. Additionally, providing in-house technical expertise (through organizations like the Climigration Network or a funding partner) could help to navigate pre-existing funding sources and alleviate some of the burden on tribes.

20 Indian Land Capital Company, “Lending – Indian Land.” https://www.ilcc.net/lending/.

21. Decolonizing Wealth Project, “Indigenous Earth Fund,” Decolonizing Wealth. https://decolonizingwealth.com/liberated-capital/ief/.

Promoting Unrestrictive Legal Mechanisms for Land Transfer

In several instances of Land Back enumerated in the case studies we surveyed, land use restrictions due to the mechanisms of transfer and zoning laws prevented full tribal sovereignty over returned land. For example, the Presbytery of the Cascades included a comprehensive “reversionary clause” when they transferred a Portland, Oregon church to the Indigenous-led organization Future Generations Collaborative.

In another case, the Trust for Public Land, on behalf of the Penobscot nation, refused funding from the National Forest Service because it would require the land to be under a conservation easement and thus restrict the Penobscot from engaging in potential timber production. Though we have some knowledge of the Land Back transfer mechanisms that seem to best promote tribal self-determination, further research is needed to understand how certain legal frameworks can facilitate unrestricted Land Back transactions.

22. Justice Funders, Justice Funders. https://justicefunders.org.

23. Werk, J. Apr. 5, 2024. “Barbie’s Village land now officially transferred into Indigenous hands.” Oregon Live. https://www. oregonlive.com/native-american-news/2024/04/barbies-village-land-now-officially-transferred-into-indigenous-hands. html

24. Gieger, O. Nov. 19, 2024, “31,000 acres returned to Penobscot Nation promise conservation without land-use restrictions.” Maine Morning Star. https://mainemorningstar. com/2024/11/19/31000-acres-returned-to-penobscot-nationpromise-conservation-without-land-use-restrictions/

Image Credit: NRCS Oregon, CC BY-ND 2.0

Section III: Promising Areas for Expanding Collaboration

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Forging New Coalitions for Land Back

In addition to identifying the need for future research, we emphasize the need for more collaborations across tribal nations, governments, and outside organizations.

The first opportunity for expanding collaboration lies within existing Land Back coalitions. For organizations and tribes that have already worked together, deepening these relationships, which are likely the result of many years of organizing and trust building, can assist the maintenance and continuation of tribal climate adaptation. While many coalitions dissolve after land transfer, sustaining these established coalitions can be a key way to promote Indigenous agency over time.

There are, however, possibilities for forging new coalitions to support Land Back. Based on our case studies and independent research interests, we have identified some untapped opportunities for Land Back coalition-building with unlikely allies.

We have identified two promising spaces for coalition building at the intersection of climate migration and Land Back: first, farmers focused on equitable land access and, second, religious organizations. Both are communities that were intimately involved with colonization and Indigenous land dispossession in the U.S. However, we have identified pockets of people who may be ready to face that history and take steps toward reparations.

Agricultural organizations focused on equitable land access

The rate of farmer retirement and agricultural land turnover is escalating in the U.S. and nearly half of U.S. farmland is expected to change ownership in the next 20 years. This presents a rare opportunity to align farmland transitions with Indigenous land return. Most of these organizations currently focus on increasing land access for young and/or BIPOC farmers, but shared concern for land stewardship could build narrative and strategic alignment between farmers and Indigenous communities; recent coalitions like the “Cowboy and Indian Alliance” demonstrate this potential. In our case study research we also found precedents of farmers who had returned some of their acreage to local tribes. At minimum, these organizations are using innovative legal tools in their work that could be replicated for Land Back. Table 3 in the next section lists agricultural organizations whose missions include solidarity with social justice movements and who may be compelling early partners for Land Back.

Faith communities

The second arena to open up for conversation about Land Back are faith communities, especially Christian churches. Churches are among the largest landowners in the U.S., but with declining congregations many are repurposing or divesting of their landholdings. Organizations like GoodLands are currently mapping church properties to explore environmentally and socially responsible

Tribal Communities

uses, while the nonprofit FaithLands works to empower faith communities to use their land in ways that supports ecological and human health and enacts reparative justice.

Additionally, in our Land Back case study research we identified congregations who were compelled to engage with their denomination’s complicity in colonial violence and Indigenous displacement. We believe the example of these case studies could be replicated in other churches across the country, supported by strategic partnerships with organizations like GoodLands and FaithLands.

25. “About Agrarian Trust.” 2025. Agrarian Trust. January 23, 2025. https://www.agrariantrust.org/about-us/.

26. Grossman, Z. May 16, 2019, “Populist alliances of ‘cowboys and Indians’ are protecting rural lands.” The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/populist-alliances-of-cowboys-and-indians-are-protecting-rural-lands-114268

27. June 12, 2018, “In Historic First, Nebraska Farmer Returns Land to Ponca Tribe Along ‘Trail of Tears.’ Last Real Indians. https://lastrealindians.com/news/2018/6/12/jun-12-2018-inhistoric-first-nebraska-farmer-returns-land-to-ponca-tribealong-trail-of-tears

28. For example, see resolution 2018-D053 established by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. https://episcopalclimatenews.com/2018/07/20/general-convention-passes-19resolutions-for-the-care-of-gods-creation/

29. See also, “The Movement to Turn Church Land into Farmland,” https://civileats.com/2018/06/11/the-movement-to-turnchurch-land-into-farmland/.

30. i.e. Brockman, T. March 11, 2020. “A church returns land to American Indians.” The Christian Century. https://www.christiancentury.org/article/features/church-returns-land-american-indians

Section IV: Resources and Toolkits to Support Future Directions

Support

Image Credit: Lila Rimalovski

Table 1: Land Back Toolkits

There are incredible toolkits and organizations already organizing towards Land Back. We uplift a sample of these existing resources to offer tangible pathways for the future research and collaborations we previously outlined.

Below is a selection of Land Back toolkits and resource collections. While not an exhaustive list, each toolkit offers a unique perspective or targets a specific audience.

NDN Collective

Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC)

A three-chapter booklet that provides a comprehensive overview of Land Back strategies, mechanisms, resources, and case studies.

SELC’s Land Back toolkit covers nine different means of land transfer, access, and sale. They also offer a “sample rematriation easement” document that is legally enforceable and can be used by anyone.

National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (NCEL) & Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP)

This collaboration aims to build the public and private sectors; they currently have a 1.5 hours recorded lecture on policy pathways for landback and a policy brief. They are developing an analysis framework using GIS to assess where potential landback transfers are most likely to happen.

Seeds of Land Return Toolkit

Resource Generation (RG)

Indian Land Tenure Foundation

RG’s Land Reparations and Indigenous Solidarity Toolkit is a starting point for education and resources for Land Back aimed at young people with generational wealth and/ or access to land.

Policy Pathways to Land Back

ILTF supports land recovery through grant funding and developing plans to reacquire reservation lands. They also have a series of Land Back case studies.

Resources and Support for Land Justice

Land Recovery

NDN Land Back Booklet

Table 2: Organizations Involved with Land Back

Below is an overview of organizations across the United States that are currently or have previously engaged with Land Back. This is by no means a comprehensive collection - we compiled it from the case studies that we investigated. We hope it serves both as a starting point for identifying potential collaborators on future Land Back initiatives and as a prompt for creative thinking about the range of organizations that may be open to engaging in this work.

Indigenous Roots and Reparation Foundation

Dawnland Return: Wabanaki Commission and First Light

Land Justice Futures

The Center for Ethical Land Transition

An Indigenous-led nonprofit dedicated to preserving history, culture, traditions, and language through education and advocacy. They host cultural workshops and gatherings, educational programming, provide essential aid to Indigenous communities affected by crises, and build collaborative partnerships.

An urban Indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people (rematriation). Their initiatives include the Rematriate the Land Fund, the Shuumi Land Tax Initiative, and a Rematriation Resource Guide.

This initiative is a collaborative effort focused on Wabanaki land stewardship and land return in Maine. This initiative involves non-Native landoriented organizations working in partnership with the Indigenous-led Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship.

LJF joins with religious communities and movement partners to create new land transitions rooted in racial and ecological healing.

Washington State

San Francisco Bay Area, CA

CELT facilitates just and cooperative land transitions by providing education, facilitation, and convenings centered on BIPOC land access and repairing relationships with land.

National

California

Organization Resources They Offer Location

Sogorea Te’

Maine

U.S. Department of the Interior Land Buy-Back Program of Tribal Nations

Virginia Land Conservation Foundation (VLCF)

Trust for Public Land (TPL)

As a result of federal policies of forcible land allotment, Indigenous claims to individual plots became so fragmented across generations that managing them became nearly impossible. A $1.9 billion fund from a 1996 class action settlement supported tribes in repurchasing and consolidating land. The program ended in 2022.

National

This fund receives funding from the state’s annual budget; Federally-recognized Indian Tribes are among the organizations that are eligible to receive matching grants from the foundation to purchase land or conservation easements.

The TPL is dedicated to creating parks and protecting land to help ensure healthy and livable communities. TPL has funded or enabled Land Back initiatives in multiple states.

Virginia

National Elliotsville Foundation

This foundation aims to strengthen communities and economies by expanding connection with the outdoors. The EF purchased and then transferred land to the Penobscot Nation and participated in the First Light Initiative.

Maine

The Conservation Fund

The Conservation Fund pursues environmental preservation and economic development and tries to acquire at-risk land on behalf of long-term conservation partners who aren’t able to move as quickly. They worked with the Bois Forte Band to return 28,000 acres of land in northern Minnesota.

National Conservation Northwest

This organization aims to protect, connect, and restore wildlands and wildlife in the Pacific Northwest. This organization returned 9,200 acres of land in Washington to the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation; part of the return was an agreement that prohibits residential, industrial, or commercial use of the land.

Save the Redwoods League

SRL purchased 500 acres on the Lost Coast in CA, transferred ownership of the forest to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, and the Council granted SRL a conservation easement.

Northwest US

California

Table 3: Potential Organizations for New Coalition-Building

Below is a list of organizations that have high potential for coalition-building. These are mostly organizations that work at the intersection of faith and agriculture. As we mentioned in Section III, in the subsection “Forging New Coalitions for Land Back,” these organizations are committed to just land stewardship, but their focus on keeping lands agriculturally productive remains siloed from conversations about Land Back and Indigenous stewardship. The following organizations’ focus on just land stewardship and new models of land stewardship suggests an openness to build coalitions or even directly support Land Back initiatives, should they align closely with their missions.

Organization

Agrarian Trust

Agrarian Trust seeks to influence this moment of rapid land turnover by supporting young farmers in acquiring and/or stewarding land. AT is particularly focused on regenerative agricultural practices and community land ownership, which they term “Agrarian Commons.” They help communities find and fund legal counsel and land acquisition opportunities.

National Young Farmers Coalition

American Farmland Trust

The NYFC aims to shift power and change policy to equitably resource a new generation of working farmers. Their mission says they “work in partnership with social justice movements for a future in which people, land, and relationships are respected.” This could be a potential partner for future land acquisitions.

National

FaithLands

AFT works to keep land agriculturally productive amidst rapid loss of agricultural land. They consult with farmers, corporations, land trusts and non-profits.

National

GoodLands

FaithLands is working to shape a national dialogue that supports faith communities in considering options for the future of their land. The organization has an emphasis on leasing land for farming, but they also mention “donating land as an act of healing and reparative justice.” They could be a ripe potential partner for negotiating Land Back with faith institutions.

National

National

Inspired by the Catholic Workers Movement and Pope Francis’ environmental vision, GoodLands is currently engaged in mapping the Catholic Church’s landholdings, for the purpose of revealing land use strategies “that have a regenerative impact on environmental, social, and economic systems.” Their mission statement web page mentions mass climate migration as one of their areas of concern. Global

Conclusion

As a coalition-building movement and as an aggregate of concrete land transfers to Indigenous nations, Land Back must be a central part of the conversation around climate migration and adaptation. Coalition-building among new partners and deepening relationships with organizations already involved in Land Back can enable and sustain the agency of Indigenous nations.

Organizations involved in climate migration have the opportunity to broaden their work by consulting and building relationships with Tribal leaders. For the Climigration Network and similar organizations, listening sessions, like those implemented by the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative, might be a critical and immediate pathway to pursue the integration of climate migration and Land Back. Academic institutions such as Harvard University, so entangled in living legacies of colonization, can and should thoughtfully and respectfully partner with outside organizations and interested Tribal nations to provide the research and possibly even the technical support needed to facilitate the growing movement. We hope to see the partnership between the Harvard University Graduate School of Design’s Urban Planning program and the Climigration Network continue to grow and act as a model for other land-owning institutions to get involved in the movement as well.

We thank the Climigration Network, our guest speakers, and the tribal members we spoke with for their kind and open-hearted generosity. We see this report as the beginning of a continuing conversation for future research, collaborations, and pathways forward, all determined to support the agency, healing, and liberation of tribal communities.

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Additional Sources

Returning Land, Reshaping Futures: Centering Indigenous Agency in Climate

Migration

Instructor

Hannah Teicher Report Design

Inmo Kang Report Editor

Inmo Kang

Dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture

Sarah Whiting Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design

Ann Forsyth

Copyright © 2025 President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Text and images © 2025 by their authors.

The editors have attempted to acknowledge all sources of images used and apologize for any errors or omissions.

Image Credits

Cover: Lila Rimalovski

Page 8-9, 10, 16-17, 20, 22-23, 28-29, 32-33, : Lila Rimalovski

Page 15: #Landback North America

Page 25: Suzanne Brandkamp, CC BY-SA 4.0

Page 27: NRCS Oregon, CC BY-ND 2.0

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Seminar Report

Spring 2025

Harvard GSD Department of Urban Planning and Design

Students

Caleb Martin, Harvard Law School

Cam McCartin, Harvard Divinity School

emily corbiere bates, Harvard Divinity School

Emily Hill, Harvard Divinity School

Lila Rimalovski, Harvard Divinity School

Tess Dufrechou, Harvard Divinity School

Odessa Chitty, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences