Planning for Land Back: an empirical examination of the Land Back Movement with implications for land use and environmental planning

Planning and other fields have embraced the use of land acknowledgments, but these acknowledgments fail to address the original sin of settler colonialism—land theft—if not coupled with action. Indigenous Nations in the United States have ceaselessly worked to regain access to and authority over their landscapes since the time of dispossession. The Land Back movement seeks to return land to Indigenous peoples and is a tangible and impactful phenomenon for land use and environmental planners. Though there is plenty scholarship on impacts and methods of land dispossession, understanding where and how land is being returned is thus far less understood. Through keyword and website searches, we identify and descriptively summarize more than 100 news stories about land transfers to Tribes in the United States. This overview serves as a means for illustrating and better understanding the temporal patterns, spatial distribution, and mechanisms of land returned as part of this Indigenous-led movement. We conclude by discussing how land use and environmental planners can move beyond acknowledgments and better support Land Back and Indigenous sovereignty as this movement continues to grow.