This Week in Human Rights News

Squaxin Island Tribe regains 1,000 acres of homeland

Sources: Port Blakely, LandBack.org, The Guardian, Teen Vogue, NCAI

In the United States, more than 1,000 acres of land has been returned to the Squaxin Island Tribe in part of what is now called Washington state. 

The announcement, which came via a press release, detailed the land return. In 2021, the Squaxin Island Tribe purchased roughly 875 acres of land from the Port Blakely timber company. 

Following the agreement, Port Blakely returned an additional 125 acres of land for no additional cost. The land return also restores the tribe’s direct access to the Whulge, also known as the Puget Sound. 

Environmental conservationists have also begun to work with Indigenous tribes on conservation efforts, starting with land back transfers. Indigenous peoples are important protectors of the world’s biodiversity, and traditional knowledge and understanding of the land is beginning to be recognised by conservationists.  

Recent examples include 1,000 acres being returned to the Esselen Tribe from a conservation group (in 2020) as well as thousands of acres of land to the Colville Tribes (in 2021).

The returning of Indigenous land to their original caretakers, Indigenous tribes, is known as the Land Back movement. 

The slogan began with Indigenous artists and has become especially popularised in North America as a call to action for the rightful return of “everything stolen from from the original peoples: land, language, ceremony, food, education, housing, healthcare, governance, medicines, and kinship”, as indicated on the Land Back manifesto.

Indigenous tribes across the globe have faced centuries of human rights abuses, including genocide and massive loss of land, from settler colonialism. 

In the United States, the National Congress for Indian Americans has reported higher percentages of poverty conditions for Indigenous people living on reservations, including substandard living conditions such as a lack of connection to public sewer systems (less than half of homes are connected), lack of phone service, and overcrowding in homes, to name a few.

“‘Land back’ is a war cry for the liberation of Indigenous people and our land,” Nick Tilsen, president and CEO of NDN Collective, said in an interview for Teen Vogue, “[and] it’s a pathway forward.”