By Taylor Pennewell, Executive Director
The Land Back movement is not just about restoring land ownership to Indigenous communities. Central to the movement is restoring Indigenous stewardship, culture, and values to our lands, in order to weave a healthier future for all our relations.
Native communities face different barriers to achieving land back, whether it be access to funding, disconnection from cultural knowledge, recognition status, and more. Knowing that land back is essential to the continued existence of Native peoples and our ancestral ecosystems, we must create spaces for intertribal knowledge exchange.
Redbud Visits the Tribal Eco- Restoration Alliance:
Redbud’s Restoring Right Relations program strengthens the Land Back movement by providing space for intertribal relationship building and knowledge sharing.
In August 2024, our cohort visited Lake County, California (Eastern Pomo lands), to engage in knowledge exchange with the Tribal Eco- Restoration Alliance (TERA). TERA, an intertribal nonprofit, is dedicated to revitalizing ecology, economy, and culture through Indigenous-led stewardship. Their work lays the foundation for Tribal capacity building, led by Native people, for the benefit of all people and ecosystems. During our time with TERA, it became clear that in order for us to lead global and water stewardship movements, we must learn to support one another.
Here’s why intertribal knowledge exchange is essential to the Land Back movement:
Connecting over our shared histories can help Native people advocate for Land Back for all.
Sharing the impact of land seizure on our families, cultures, and ecosystems can help us collectively advocate for improved land access for Indigenous peoples. Even though our Tribes have our own traditions, we have faced shared challenges like colonization through the Missions and Gold Rush eras, boarding school systems, illegalization of ceremony, and ecological destruction. Learning about the similarities and differences of our historical and contemporary experiences with land and colonization can inform our Land Back advocacy so that it considers the needs of all of us.
Photo: Restoring Right Relations cohort learning from Pomo elder, Ron Montes, about his childhood experiences living in Lake County, where he and his friends often swam in mercury-polluted water, and watched the reduction of water-purifying tule from the shoreline.
2. Preserving and Revitalizing Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Relies on Filling Knowledge Gaps through Intertribal Knowledge Sharing.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is a body of eco-cultural knowledge and practices developed by our ancestors through generations of living in harmony with our environments. We know that some Tribes have been better able to preserve and continue the practice of TEK than others. This is due to a wide range of colonial factors- like the impact of assimilation and family separation policies. Rather than shame our communities for what we don’t know, intertribal knowledge sharing creates an opportunity for Tribes to help one another reconnect with our ancestral life ways in ways that are truly invaluable to our communities and ecosystems.
Tribes who live in similar climates and ecosystems can share observations and patterns in order to inform one another’s stewardship and restoration plans. While individual Tribes need to interpret knowledge through their own cultural worldview, learning from trusted Tribal neighbors can build confidence, galvanize interest in cultural revitalization, and instill new curiosity in Tribes who are applying TEK to their homelands.
Photo: TERA team teaching about their “Seasonal Round” an observational tool to help Native staff track ecosystem patterns in their ancestral habitats. Restoring Right Relations members from both Berry Creek Rancheria and Konkow Valley plan to create their own seasonal rounds in their respective territories, and compare data in order to inform one anothers stewardship and restoration plans.
3. Creating Strategic Alliances and Support Networks Helps us Navigate and Overcome Colonial Systems.
The Land Back movement is not just about reclaiming land; it’s about reclaiming sovereignty and self-determination. To achieve these goals, Indigenous nations must navigate complex legal, political, and social landscapes that dictate how and when we can steward our ancestral homelands. By sharing legal strategies, successful negotiation tactics, and experiences with various forms of resistance, we can support one another in our respective struggles for land and rights. These alliances also help to amplify the voices of smaller or more isolated communities, ensuring that no one is left behind.
Photo: Robinson Rancheria Chairman and his mom share why supporting intertribal networks like TERA is so important to their mission as a tribe. During our conversation, we discussed strategies for convincing tribal councils that investing in eco-cultural training and restoration is essential to restoring health to our ancestral homelands. TERA also shared important legal information to help tribes navigate complex systems operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
4. Resisting Cultural Assimilation and Strengthening Cultural Resilience is Easier When We Model it For One Another.
One of the primary tools of colonization has been the forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples into settler-colonial cultures. This has often involved the suppression of our languages, spiritual practices, and cultural traditions. Intertribal knowledge exchange is a powerful form of resistance against cultural assimilation. By sharing stories, languages, ceremonies, and other cultural practices, we can strengthen our cultural resilience and ensure the survival of our traditions for future generations. This cultural resurgence is a key aspect of the Land Back movement, as it reclaims not just physical land, but also the cultural landscapes that are intimately tied to it.
Photo: Restoring Right Relations participants working with the TERA crew to remove invasive primrose from the shores of Clear Lake. TERA taught our cohort about the ways that primrose chokes out tule along the shoreline, making it difficult for tule to thrive and clean the water effectively. We also learned about the role of tule ecologically and culturally to Lake County Pomo communities. Some RRR participants realized that they also had primrose growing in their tule habitats, and plan to integrate knowledge from TERA into their own stewardship plans.
Photo: TERA shows participants how to ignite fires using sticks. While we left appreciating the ease of lighting fires with lighters, we gained renewed appreciation for the traditional ways of working with the elements used by our ancestors!
It is not enough for Tribes to simply restore “ownership” of our ancestral lands. Land Back is not complete without the restoration of Indigenous values and stewardship to the land and water. Restoring our ways of life is incredibly difficult considering the barriers we face in Western culture. To support one another in our collective efforts, we can rely on one another for guidance, perspective, and care, as long as we stay focused on the collective goal: to create a safer, healthier, more resilient world for all our relations.
Note: Redbud’s “Land Back Spider Graph” is a powerful resource that reframes Land Back as a movement of intersecting opportunities. Check it out our Land Back Spider Graph tool HERE to learn about the various ways that tribes and non Native entities can engage in the Land Back movement.
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