2020 Land & Water News Stories
Clatsop-Nehalem tribes ‘dreaming again’ with return of ancestral land (Oregon Public Broadcasting) 12/15/20
Navajo Nation renews call for the protection of 1.9 million acres of land under the Bears Ears National Monument (Indian Country Today) 12/11/20
Taos Pueblo celebrates 50th anniversary of the return of Blue Lake (Taos News) 12/10/20
Grand Traverse Band seeks federal compensation for land grab (Traverse City Record Eagle) 12/10/20
Tribal land issues are a serious challenge facing Alaska (Anchorage Daily News) 12/8/20
'Everything is drying up': As springs on Hopi land decline, a sacred connection is threatened (AZ Central) 12/7/20
Reasserting tribal forest management under good neighbor authority (The Regulatory Review) 12/7/20
Salmon people: A tribe's decades-long fight to take down the Lower Snake River dams and restore a way of life (The Seattle Times) 11/29/20
Decolonization is more than just a word (Yale Daily News) 11/29/20
Give the land back? (Flash Forward Podcast) 11/10/20
Resolution for school lands pushed until November 10 (Indianz) 11/6/20
It happened here: Yakima rancher helps Yakama Nation in fight for land, water rights (Yakima Herald) 11/2/20
Stop the destruction of Tohono O’odham lands (High Country News) 10/30/20
Shinnecock members occupy land on Sunrise Highway in protest (Patch) 10/29/20
Trump administration opens Alaska rainforest to loggers (NRDC) 10/28/20
Making an effort to get legislation for the return of land in the Black Hills (Indianz) 10/26/20
Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee vigorously combats theft of tribal water (Indianz) 10/26/20
California tribes oppose proposed water tunnel (Indian Country Today) 10/25/20
Michigan group says archaeological findings enough to halt Enbridge tunnel project (Wall Street Journal) 10/22/20
The Alaska Native village of Kake defends their right to hunt (High Country News) 10/12/20
Nevada land proposal includes tribal voices (Indian Country Today) 10/12/20
Bands continue moose hunts to maintain tradition, treaty rights (Minnesota Public Radio) 10/12/20
Athabascan, Iñupiat tribes sue to halt Arctic road project (Indian Country Today) 10/8/20
Alarmed by scope of wildfires, officials turn to Native Americans for help (The New York Times) 10/7/20
Historic land settlement inches closer in South Dakota
(The Bismarck Tribune) 10/3/20
Indigenous activists target Liberty Mutual's Boston Headquarters demanding they stop insuring Tar Sands projects (Indian Country Today) 10/2/20
Eleven Alaska Native tribes offer new way forward on managing the Tongass (High Country News) 10/1/20
Court weighs tribes’ water claims for Jemez River (Santa Fe New Mexican) 10/1/20
Montana Sierra Club supports tribal management of National Bison Range (The Missoulian) 9/30/20
Shakopee Mdewakanton tribe applies to put 295 acres of its Scott County land into trust (Minnesota Star Tribune) 9/27/20
How anti-Indigeneity proliferates around the West and the world (High Country News) 9/25/20
Cherokee Nation Reservation now visible on Google Maps (Indian Country Today) 9/23/20
Fighting for what's sacred in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (KALW) 9/23/20
'It's home': The saga of two Dakota Sioux reservations, born of injustice, but enduring cultural homelands (Duluth News Tribune) 9/23/20
Letter asks Interior to slow Chaco development (Indian Country Today) 9/18/20
Alaska tribes, 15 states file suits to stop drilling in Arctic (The Arctic Sounder) 9/17/20
The racist removal of Native Americans in California is often missing from wildfire discussions, experts say (Capital Radio) 9/16/20
Tribal perspectives key to Rio Grande study (Albuquerque Journal) 9/11/20
Conservationists, tribes lobby for national monument in area of Spirit Mountain (The Laughlin Times) 9/7/20
Native rights group backs Kake in lawsuit over emergency subsistence hunt (Alaska Public Media) 9/4/20
Rethinking the Wind River Reservation (WBUR) 9/3/20
DC Bar Indian Country water panel on 9/10 (Turtle Talk) 8/31/20
The Frontier: Effective date of historic state-tribal water agreement pushed back as Kiamichi River lawsuit is appealed (Tahlequah Daily Press) 8/19/20
Cherokee Nation welcomes two Yellowstone bison to herd in Delaware County (Indian Country Today) 8/19/20
'It’s not OK. It’s not OK': Native Hawaiian remains removed from luxury beachfront property (Indianz) 8/19/20
FCC: 2.5 GHz Rural Tribal Window (FCC) 7/31/20
Contested water settlements inflamed the Navajo Nation's health crisis (High Country News) 8/11/20
Sioux checkpoints aim to block bikers from crossing tribal land (Rapid City Journal) 8/10/20
Window opens for more Alaska Native Vietnam vets to get land (Indian Country Today) 8/10/20
Writing in the ancestral Cherokee homeland (Literary Hub) 8/10/20
More than 1 thousand acres of Esselen ancestral land returned to tribe (NPR) 8/2/20
Native Sun News Today: MHA sues USA: Nations at odds over Missouri riverbed rights (Indianz) 7/29/20
Blackfeet Nation closes border of Glacier National Park in response to rising COVID-19 cases (Earth Institute Columbia University) 7/29/20
Eviction notice: Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline must vacate Oceti Sakowin lands (Indian Country Today) 7/27/20
With a Roadless Rule decision pending, tribal governments petition for new process (Alaska Public Media) 7/21/20
Members of 4 Vermont tribes can now hunt for free (Indian Country Today) 7/19/20
Christina Leza: What is the U.S.-Mexico border to Indigenous Peoples who have lived there? (Indianz) 7/16/20
U.S. Supreme Court decision may influence fate of Michigan tribe's land claim (Michigan Radio) 7/12/20
Indigenous land defenders released from jail after Mt. Rushmore Trump visit, prosecutor launches campaign of charges against them (Indian Country Today) 7/10/20
State Supreme Court vacates racist 1916 ruling in Yakama fishing rights case (Yakima Herald) 7/10/20
Ninth Circuit rules to restore protections for Yellowstone grizzlies (Bozeman Daily Chronicle) 7/8/20 (See Crow Indian Tribe v. United States)
Gold mine along Hassayampa River may imperil tribal cultural, riparian sites (Arizona Central) 7/6/20
Montana Free Press: As COVID spikes, Blackfeet leaders close eastern entrances to Glacier for summer (Indianz) 6/30/20
South Dakota tribal leader joins call to remove Mount Rushmore ahead of Trump visit (Indianapolis Star) 6/30/20
Abenaki win back free fishing and hunting rights (Shelburne News) 6/29/20
Yakama Nation fishery succeeds in restoring Columbia River sturgeon (Earth Institute - Columbia University) 6/26/20
Two Arizona tribes, advocacy group join suits over EPA's clean-water rule rollback (Indian Country Today) 6/25/20
Alaska Native Vietnam War-era veterans are one step closer to being able to apply for land allotments (U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources) 6/25/20
AZ tribes sue federal government over water quality rules (Sierra Vista Herald) 6/23/20
Your road trip is not more important than Indian Country (The New Republic) 6/19/20
Cayuga Nation sues BIA over trust application delay (Finger Lakes Times) 6/19/20
Border wall construction disrupts Native tradition and violates spiritual freedom (Indian Country Today) 6/12/20
How the Yurok Tribe is reclaiming the Klamath River (High Country News) 6/11/20
Nebraska lake named for Chief Big Elk (Indian Country Today) 6/11/20
Iron Range board tables Fond du Lac water treatment funding over band's 'anti-mining' stances (Red Lake Nation News) 6/11/20
No border wall for Arizona tribe's Colorado River stretch (Arizona Public Media) 6/11/20
Native Sun News Today: Lawsuit challenges gold permit process in 'sacred water' basin (Indianz) 6/10/20
Pocatello attorney prevails in largest water rights case in Nevada history (Idaho State Journal) 6/4/20
House backs free hunting, fishing licenses for Abenaki (Saint Albans Messenger) 6/4/20
Tribal health concerns about re-opening national parks 'have fallen on deaf ears' (Indian Country Today) 6/3/20
Cronkite News: Tribal leaders, advocates question reopening at Grand Canyon, other parks (Indianz) 6/3/20
Quinault Indian Nation comments on Chehalis River Dam Project (Quinault Indian Nation) 5/26/20
'You're gonna have a lot of trouble': Judge trashes Trump over changes in tribal homelands policy (Indianz) 5/20/20
Tribal members harassed for pursuing aboriginal fishing rights (Cape Cod Times) 5/14/20
Petition seeks Pecos River protections (Indian Country Today) 5/13/20
9th Circuit hears appeal on protections for Yellowstone grizzlies (Indianz) 5/13/20
MN Supreme Court: DNR has power to change Lake Calhoun name to Bde Maka Ska (Minnesota Public Radio) 5/13/20
Now, more than ever, we need tribes at the water negotiating table (Arizona Central) 5/4/20
Virtual meetings set for drilling plan near New Mexican national park (The Salt Lake Tribune) 5/1/20
Water is life: It's time (Indian Country Today) 4/29/20
Cornell's land grant heritage: A sinister tradition? (Cornell Daily Sun) 4/24/20
As Native peoples self-isolate, outsiders are still demanding in (Al Jazeera) 4/20/20
Study says Yellowstone's bison are exerting an unhealthily heavy footprint (Indianz) 4/13/20
Mashpee tribal members recount long history of fighting for land (Cape Code Times) 4/12/20
Snoqualmie Indian Tribe celebrates the finalization of fee to trust land decision (Tacoma Daily Index) 4/8/20
Members of Congress demand Senate address decision to nix tribe's reservation land (The Mashpee Enterprise) 4/6/20
Interior acquires off-rez land (non-gaming) in trust for Grand Traverse Band (Turtle Talk) 4/2/20
Land-grab universities (High Country News) 3/30/20
Largest US dam removal stirs debate over coveted West water (East Oregonian) 3/30/20
Tribe that drew Trump's fire over casino plan loses its reservation status (The Huffington Post) 3/29/20
Why are some Native Americans fighting efforts to decriminalize peyote? (Los Angeles Times) 3/29/20
Trump administration ordered land taken out of trust, tribal chairman says (The Mashpee Enterprise) 3/28/20
Bill seeks to recognize California tribal land now occupied by schools, libraries (The Desert Sun) 3/6/20
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe wins major victory in homelands litigation (Indianz) 3/6/20 (See Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians v. Bernhardt)
Eastern ranchers say BIA mishandling grazing permits (Navajo Times) 3/5/20
Tribal Wildlife Corridors Act would protect habitat on tribal lands (National Wildlife Federation) 3/4/20
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe loses appeal in homelands case (Indianz) 3/2/20 (See Littlefield v. Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe)
USDA reports Arizona has the largest concentration of Indian farms (Indian Country Today) 2/20/20
Navajo Nation, San Juan County to pursue freight railroad (Idaho Statesman) 2/20/20
Native Sun News Today: Oglala tribal staff caps water well with uranium in it (Indianz) 2/19/20
The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe reintroduces bighorn sheep on tribal lands (High Country News) 2/13/20
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds Ute Indian Tribe's exclusive right to control its lands (Indian Country Today) 2/11/20
Bishop Paiute tribal council reaches milestone agreement with California Department of Fish and Wildlife (Indian Country Today) 2/7/20
Tribal leaders call Bears Ears opening an 'unlawful action' (Indian Country Today) 2/7/20
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians acquires ancestral property in Tennessee (Indianz) 2/5/20
Mashpee Wampanoag call US action 'another black mark' (Indian Country Today) 2/5/20
YES! Magazine: Tribes seeks role in managing ocean habitats in treaty territory (Indianz) 2/3/20
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe stands alone in battle for homelands (Indianz) 1/30/20
Agua Caliente files new lawsuit against Coachella water districts (The Desert Sun) 1/28/20
Tohono O'odham Nation wants consultation with DHS on border wall mitigation (Sierra Vista Herald) 1/25/20
Navajo lawmakers opt for smaller buffer around Chaco park (The Durango Herald) 1/24/20
BIA violates Crow Agency water repairs order (Indian Country Today) 1/22/20
Appeals Court hears oral arguments in Badger-Two-Medicine case (The Missoulian) 1/21/20
Tribes unite to protect Bristol Bay Salmon and Native sovereignty (Alaska Native News) 1/21/20
Tohono O'odham historic sites at risk as border wall construction advances in Arizona (Arizona Central) 1/20/20
Guest opinion: Bison transfer corrects longstanding wrong (Billings Gazette) 1/20/20
Elk raise tensions between tribes and farmers in Washington's Skagit Valley (NPR) 1/18/20
'It's a pretty monumental step': Tribal farm reclaims land on Winnebago Reservation (Indianz) 1/17/20
Tribal management of bison range is restorative justice (Flathead Beacon) 1/15/20
Video: Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife Legislative Hearing (Indianz) 1/14/20
On the largest freshwater island in the world, Lake Huron's Native Americans warn of the fragility of water (The Chicago Tribune) 1/13/20
Grijalva asks feds to 'respect tribal lands' during border construction (Arizona Public Media) 1/9/20
Uranium mine near Grand Canyon 'is an intrusion' and a 'risk to the groundwater' (Indian Country Today) 1/1/20
