2023 Native Lands & Sacred Places News Stories (Land Back, Treaty Rights, Tribal Homelands, Historic Protections) News Stories
New Mexico extends ban on oil and gas leasing around Chaco park, an area sacred to Native Americans (The Hill) 12/14/2023
Efforts to establish Mimbres Peak National Monument underway in New Mexico (Native News Online) 12/14/2023
Group calls on Biden to expand Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument (Native News Online) 12/14/2023
U.S. touts new era of collaboration with Native American Tribes to manage public lands (PBS News Hour) 12/7/2023
National Park Service to do theme study on Indian Reorganization Period (Native News Online) 12/7/2023
USDA unveils partnerships with Native American Tribes (Courthouse News Service) 12/6/2023
3 million acres returned to Tribal trust ownership during decade long program (Native News Online) 12/5/2023
An Alaska Native Tribal council greenlit a gold mine. Some Tribal members aren’t happy. (Grist) 12/1/2023
Tonawanda Seneca Nation sues US Fish and Wildlife Service over pipeline for Genesee County industrial park (Buffalo News) 11/30/2023
In America, national parks are more than scenic − they’re sacred. But they were created at a cost to Native Americans (The Conversation) 11/20/2023
Judge rules against Tribes in fight over Nevada lithium mine they say is near sacred site (Los Angeles Times) 11/18/2023
Congressional delegations back bill that would return land to Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska (U.S. News & World Report) 11/13/2023
Penobscot Nation to reclaim ancestral land in north central Maine (Native News Online) 11/1/2023
Utah leaders appeal dismissal of Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments lawsuit (KSL.com Salt Lake City) 11/1/2023
Tribal co-management of federal public lands leads to new protections (Navajo-Hopi Observer) 10/31/2023
An ancestral land returns to a Lenape family, who is building a center there to preserve nature, heritage, and culture (WHYY PBS) 10/30/2023
After a century of displacement, Shasta Indian Nation sees hope in dam removal (Oregon Public Broadcasting) 10/15/2023
‘We were not consulted’: Native Americans fight lithium mine on site of 1865 massacre (The Guardian) 10/13/2023
Cornell University should work with tribes to mend the history of its massive land grab, report says (Native News Online) 10/11/2023
How efforts to protect an Indigenous oasis almost led to its demise (Grist) 10/11/2023
How a California tribe won their ancestral land back and saved endangered salmon (Vox) 10/9/2023
An 'anti-World's Fair' makes its case: give land back to Native Americans (NPR) 10/9/2023
‘Try to make it right’: Sacred site to be restored in Clackamas County (KOIN CBS 6) 10/5/2023
Book review: "The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance" (New York Journal of Books) 10/3/2023
New Indigenous Ranger Intern Program uplifts Indigenous voices at Mesa Verde National Park (KSJD Public Radio) 10/1/2023
Rejected by US courts, Onondaga Nation take centuries-old land rights case to international panel (ABC News) 9/30/2023
In new collaborations, tribes become stewards of parks and monuments (Idaho Capital Sun) 9/25/2023
OPINION: Fighting for public lands and Alaska’s future (Anchorage Daily News) 9/24/2023
The state of tribal co-management of public lands (High Country News) 9/24/2023
LA's largest-ever land back an 'important step' in the movement (Native News Online) 9/23/2023
Three California tribal nations declare first U.S. Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area (Native News Online) 9/21/2023
Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are nation’s newest UNESCO World Heritage site (Cleveland.com) 9/19/2023
‘It plays to our historical trauma’: Tonawanda Seneca Nation and Orleans County aim to stop STAMP pipeline (WKBW ABC 7 Buffalo) 9/19/2023
Federal authorities announce plan to safeguard sacred tribal lands in New Mexico's Sandoval County (ABC News) 9/18/2023
How the land back movement is unraveling manifest destiny (Sierra Magazine) 9/11/2023
Feds will visit Western Alaska to offer Native Vietnam-era veterans land (Alaska Public Media) 9/7/2023
Final oil and gas lease to be relinquished in Montana's Badger-Two Medicine area (Red Lake Nation News) 9/5/2023
Native tribe to get back land 160 years after largest mass hanging in US history (Guardian) 9/2/2023
Louisiana company gets $2.6 million to give up oil lease on sacred Native American land (Nola.com) 9/2/2023
Native Hawaiians fear Maui land grab (Native News Online) 8/29/2023
Shoshone-Bannock tribes support BLMs decision to protect cultural resources (Tribal Gaming and Hospitality) 8/28/2023
Tribal nations help guide proposal for new Pacific Ocean marine sanctuary (Sacramento Bee) 8/24/2023
South Jersey land once inhabited by tribe is returned to Native American group (NJ.com) 8/22/2023
Native Hawaiian sacred sites have been damaged in the Lahaina wildfires – but, as an Indigenous scholar writes, their stories will live on (The Conversation) 8/11/2023
Federal judge tosses Utah lawsuit seeking to shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments (Salt Lake Tribune) 8/11/2023
Arizona tribes to take larger role in managing new monument near Grand Canyon (AZ Central) 8/11/2023
Tree removals at Brackenridge Park target of Indigenous group’s lawsuit against San Antonio project (San Antonio Express News) 8/10/2023
President Biden designates the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument (Native News Online) 8/8/2023
State challenges petition to create Indian Country in Juneau (Cordova Times) 8/7/2023
The Fight for Oak Flat: Indigenous voices in the green energy transition (Native News Online) 8/4/2023
Alaska asks judge to determine whether federal officials can create ‘Indian country’ in the state (Alaska Beacon) 8/3/2023
Wounded Knee “killing fields” one step closer to return to Tribes (Rapid City Journal) 7/22/2023
Tribal nation sues Poarch Creek and Auburn University over desecration of sacred site (Advance Local Alabama) 7/21/2023
‘Enough is enough’: Native Hawaiians slam Canada for supporting telescope on sacred land (Canada's National Observer) 7/18/2023
Feds hear from tribes, residents, local leaders on Grand Canyon national monument proposal (Arizona Daily Sun) 7/18/2023
For Grand Ronde tribes, reclaiming land is a way of healing (Oregon Public Broadcasting) 7/17/2023
House subcommittee considers “racially motivated” and “unnecessary” bill on Mount Rushmore (Native News Online) 7/15/2023
Oil and gas withdrawal around US park stirs debate over economic costs for Native American tribe (Albuquerque Journal) 7/14/2023
Wasatch Back congressman proposing land swap to resolve Bear Ears controversy (KPCW) 7/14/2023
University of Minnesota grapples with reparation demands from tribes who say they were victims of land grabs (MinnPost) 7/13/2023
Native Americans argue in court that 2 mining projects would destroy religious sites (NPR) 7/11/2023
The struggle to reclaim home - preview: Lakota Nation vs. United States (Cowboys & Indians) 7/7/2023
Arizona’s Oak Flat is sacred land to some Native Americans but proposed as a giant copper mine (Arizona's Family) 6/28/2023
Snoqualmie implements a first of its kind land protection tax (Indian Country Today) 6/28/2023
When $1 billion isn’t enough. Why the Sioux won’t put a price on land. (Christian Science Monitor) 6/28/2023
Tribal leaders urge legislators to support reestablishment of Lake Traverse Reservation boundaries (Dakota News Now) 6/27/2023
Appeals court to hear challenges to lithium mine from environmentalists, tribes (NPR) 6/27/2023
Restoring lost lands (American Indian Magazine) Spring 2023
King Cove tribes, local government organizations react to court of appeals decision on the 2019 land exchange agreement (Alaska Native News) 6/17/2023
Criticism, praise directed at Chaco 10-mile buffer order issued by interior secretary (Las Cruces Sun News) 6/12/2023
Landless San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe could finally get its own homeland (Cronkite News) 6/7/2023
‘It would come back one day.’ The Yokuts and Tulare Lake meet again (KVPR) 6/7/2023
'A breach of trust': Navajo leaders criticize federal ban on oil, gas drilling near tribal sites (KSL.com) 6/7/2023
Feds withdraw land around Chaco from drilling (Santa Fe Reporter) 6/2/2023
Transfer of western Minnesota park land to Upper Sioux Community approved by Legislature (West Central Tribune) 5/27/2023
Utah’s latest attack on the Antiquities Act (High Country News) 5/25/2023
Feds pause progress of mine that tribal leaders say will destroy sacred Indigenous site in Arizona (Native News Online) 5/24/2023
Biden administration pauses copper mining project on Oak Flat, a sacred Apache site (Grist) 5/24/2023
Quinault Indian Nation moving 500 acres to federal trust (The Daily World) 5/17/2023
South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson introduces bill to preserve Wounded Knee massacre site (Aberdeen News) 5/16/2023
Minnesota poised to close state park, return land to Dakota tribe (Star Tribune) 5/11/2023
Forced from Grand Canyon National Park, the Havasupai Tribe embraces spiritual homecoming (AP News) 5/11/2023
Biden administration supports bill to resolve U.P. tribe's land claim (The Detroit News) 5/4/2023
New Mexico lawmakers renew push for Chaco protections (Santa Fe New Mexican) 5/3/2023
Tribal members and allies protest CSULB’s soil treatment plan on Puvungna (Long Beach Post) 4/26/2023
San Carlos Apache take copper mine fight to United Nations (Grist) 4/26/2023
Ancestral lands to be returned from the City of Tucson to Tohono O’odham Nation (KVOA) 4/18/2023
U.S. Interior Secretary celebrates Nevada's new national monument (KRNV) 4/17/2023
Tribes, leaders celebrate Avi Kwa Ame national monument (Las Vegas Review-Journal) 4/14/2023
'Our ancestors have lived on these lands for thousands of years,' | Michigan tribe signs tribal forest protection act (Native News Online) 4/11/2023
Tribes want US protection for areas next to the Grand Canyon (US News & World Report) 4/11/2023
Tribe: Park not recreational land (Marshal Independent) 4/7/2023
AZ tribal lands for San Juan Southern Paiute up for ratification – again (Fronteras) 4/5/2023
House subcommittee hearing highlights bills on land leases in Indian Country (Tribal Business News) 4/2/2023
It’s been a place of worship for centuries. Now a copper mine threatens its future (Grist) 3/30/2023
The Vatican repudiates ‘Doctrine of Discovery,’ which was used to justify colonialism (Oregon Public Broadcasting) 3/30/2023
Responding to Indigenous, Vatican rejects Discovery Doctrine (ABC) 3/30/2023
President Biden creates national monuments in Nevada, Texas mountains (Navajo-Hopi Observer) 3/28/2023
Court rehears case to protect Oak Flat, an Apache sacred site in Arizona (Religion News Service) 3/21/2023
Joe Biden designates Avi Kwa Ame a national monument (Indian Country Today) 3/20/2023
Lawmakers propose expanding Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument (Native News Online) 3/9/2023
Land transfer to Upper Sioux Community clears first step in Minnesota Legislature (West Central Tribune) 3/8/2023
Lawmakers dispute over bill to include a Penobscot tribal member on the Baxter State Park Authority (Maine Public Radio) 2/27/2023
Bipartisan legislation reintroduced to solidify tribal trust agreements (Native News Online) 2/27/2023
'Land, heritage and culture protected.' U.S. court sides with Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (Cape Cod Times) 2/15/2023
‘This is about self-determination and sovereignty’ (Indianz) 2/14/2023
University of Minnesota says it will return forestry land to Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Star Tribune) 2/9/2023
Bill to give around 76 acres of land back to Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians passes House (WBIR) 2/7/2023
Macon’s Ocmulgee Mounds expected to become National Park, but roadblocks remain (Georgia Public Broadcasting) 2/6/2023
A dam project flooded his family's North Dakota home. He waged a historic legal battle to get just compensation (Dickinson Press) 2/3/2023
What does the nation’s commitment to tribal co-stewardship mean for public lands? (High Country News) 2/1/2023
Reps. Vargas, Issa reintroduce bill to place sacred Chokla Mountain in trust (Times of San Diego) 1/25/2023
Oklahoma court says Kickapoo Reservation was disestablished (Texarkana Gazette) 1/20/2023
California tribe signs historic co-stewardship agreement with Joshua Tree National Park (Native News Online) 1/18/2023
State of Alaska sues Interior over Tlingit and Haida land trust transfer (Native News Online) 1/18/2023
Tax bill would exempt tribal members transferring fee land (Montana Standard) 1/17/2023
Pascua Yaqui Tribe gets 30 acres of land back, opening new economic development opportunities (Tribal Business News) 1/4/2023
Clean energy project clashes with important Yakama site (The Columbian) 1/1/2023
