land issues

Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Monitors Program

Year

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is located on 2.3 million acres of land in the central regions of North and South Dakota. Land issues rose to the forefront of tribal concerns after events such as allotment, lands flooding after the Army Corps of Engineers built a series of dams adjacent to the Tribe, and years of drought that caused drastic changes to a major river. Allotment meant that many sacred sites were no longer on lands controlled by the Tribe. Dropping water levels in the river, reservoirs, and lakes exposed culturally significant sites long covered by water. Dispersed over a massive land base, these numerous cultural and archeological sites were subject to looting and abuse. In 2000, using its authority to manage, protect, and preserve tribal property, the Tribe’s Historic Preservation Office established a Tribal Monitors Program. Archeologically trained personnel, working with tribal elders, identify and monitor these significant sites. Additionally, they see that the sites, the artifacts within them, and any exposed human remains are dealt with in a culturally appropriate way. The Tribe is managing and protecting its lands while preserving the spiritual and cultural heritage and resources that the nation truly depends on for future generations.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Tribal Monitors Program." Honoring Nations: 2005 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2006. Report. 

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

Ak-Chin Community Council Task Force

Year

Over the past few years, the citizens of the Ak-Chin Indian Community, located south of Phoenix, Arizona, have witnessed the land surrounding their reservation rapidly transform from fields into housing subdivisions. Worried about the impact on the reservation, the Ak-Chin Indian Community established its Community Council Task Force. The Task Force reviews all development plans for the lands surrounding the reservation to determine their resulting influence on the Community’s quality of life, and works with developers and neighboring governments to lessen any potential harm.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Ak-Chin Community Council Task Force." Honoring Nations: 2008 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2009. Report. 

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

Advancing the State-Tribal Consultation Mandate

Year

This summer, in the face of an impending private land sale of Pe’Sla, a Lakota/Dakota/Nakota Indian sacred site in the Black Hills, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, S. James Anaya, directed that authorities in South Dakota “engage in a process of consultation” with the Great Sioux Nation to consider and address their views and concerns. While the federal Indian consultation right is now entrenched in federal and international law, the Special Rapporteur’s pronouncement of a state-tribal consultation mandate is profound–especially insofar as it concerns the American indigenous “right to continue to maintain their traditional cultural and ceremonial practices” on off-reservation lands...

Resource Type
Citation

Galanda, Gabriel S. "Advancing the State-Tribal Consultation Mandate." Indian Country Today, October 17, 2012. Article. (https://ictnews.org/archive/advancing-the-state-tribal-consultation-mandate, accessed February 28, 2023)

Legend Lake: A Talking Circle

Producer
Terra Institute's Building Bridges Program
Year

The documentary video recounts the saga of Legend Lake, a beautiful 5,160 acre lake development, formed by joining 9 smaller lakes in the Menominee Indian Reservation (with the same boundaries as Menominee County) in northern Wisconsin whose shore land was subdivided and sold mostly to non-Menominee people. Legend Lake represents another chapter in the long and often contentious relationship between American Indians and non-Indians in Wisconsin. 

Why and how the lake came into being, what land issues have arisen and what might be done to manage them is the subject of this video and related reference materials which build on the video's themes. While the documentary is instructive in its own right, the packet of study materials provides teachers, students and community members with more information for greater understanding of the differing perspectives on land in the Legend Lake area...

Native Nations
Citation

Rolo, Mark Anthony. "Legend Lake: A Talking Circle." Terra Institute, LTD. Produced for the Terra Institute's Building Bridges Program. 2010. Documentary. (http://www.terrainstitute.org/legend_lake.html, accessed March 1, 2013)