Tribal Lands Lost

Prior to Lewis and Clark's expedition that led to the opening of the West, the Nez Perce occupied a vast aboriginal domain spread across 13.5 million acres of what is now Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Through a series of government laws, the Nez Perce lost more than 99 percent of their land.

Between 1744 and 1871, the Indian Nations and the United States negotiated treaties in which tribes relinquished millions of acres of homeland in exchange for designated reservations. In the late 1880s, non-Indian "reformers" began to advocate private, individual ownership of lands by Indians within the reservations as a means of improving their economic well-being. In February of 1887, President Cleveland signed the General Allotment Act, known as the Dawes Act.

Under the Dawes Act, reservations were divided into privately owned tracts of land. Each head of household was awarded 160 acres; individuals over 18 years of age were allotted 80 acres, and children under 18 years of age received 40 acres. The remaining land was considered "surplus" and sold to non-tribal members. Often the most valuable reservation lands went to timber, railroad, and other commercial interests. Although proceeds from the sales of surplus land were designated to be used by Congress to benefit Indians, there is little evidence that this has been the case.

In an effort to protect Indians from being defrauded of their land, the federal government decreed that each allotment be held in trust for twenty-five years, during which it could not be sold, leased, or exchanged. The Dawes Act further stipulated that when a property owner died, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) must give each heir an undivided share that had not been partitioned or physically divided. As a result, the number of owners was allowed to grow with each generation and the ownership of reservation lands became increasingly divided.

Further afflicting the economic well-being of Indians on the reservations were the "checkerboard" land ownership patterns that developed where parcels were variously owned by tribes, individual Indians, the government, and non-Indian interests. Because individual tribal members were not allowed to sell, lease, or exchange their property, they were prevented from consolidating acreage to create economically viable plots of land.

The catastrophic land policies pursued between the 1880s and 1930s resulted in the loss of nearly two-thirds of the Indian land base: more than 90 million acres. In addition to losses to the Nez Perce Tribe, in 1855 the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation ceded to the United States over four million acres of land in Washington and Oregon to establish a 172,000-acre reservation. In 1969, only 95,000 acres of reservation were left in Indian hands. Tribal officials estimate that 50 to 65 percent of the reservation is owned today by non-Indians.

Restoration and Unification Under Way

Native American culture is a land-based culture. Large-scale disruption of and displacement from aboriginal lands has undermined cultural and spiritual values that form the basis of Indian society. Restoration and unification of tribal lands is essential to the economic survival of Indian communities, for preservation of their heritage and history, and for conservation of precious land resources.

Today, Indians living on reservations have the highest unemployment rate in the country, ranging from 30 percent to as high as 75 percent. Among those with jobs, nearly a third earned less than $10,000 per year in 1995. Epidemic levels of alcoholism, drug addiction, suicide, child abuse, and diabetes plague the reservations. Economic revitalization of Indian communities is essential to address problems of unemployment, income, and health.

Unifying and expanding tribal lands enhances such enterprises as cooperative agriculture and ranching. For example, the InterTribal Bison Cooperative, a consortium of more than 40 tribes, is working to restore the bison�?a hallmark of Plains culture and economy �?by raising free-range bison for the burgeoning health-food market. Environmental and wildlife management also offers other opportunities for economic development. At the TPL-established InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Park in Mendocino County, California, jobs and job training in restoration ecology are offered to Native Americans. In Northern Minnesota, TPL acquired a 2,500-acre wild-rice farm for the Red Lake Band of the Chippewa Tribe to protect natural resources and to train tribal youth in agriculture. In Idaho, the Nez Perce Tribe won a contract from the federal government to manage the reintroduction of the gray wolf to that region.

Preserving culturally significant sites is an essential part of educating Indians and non-Indians alike about this country's Native American roots. Restoration of a meaningful land base also fosters preservation of Native American heritage and culture. TPL's acquisition of the 777-acre Miller Island in Oregon has enabled the Nez Perce, Warm Springs, Umatilla, and Yakama Tribes to protect this site's extraordinary cultural values and use the island for reinterments of ancestors returned to the tribes under the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act. Wocus Point, an important burial site in Oregon's Klamath Basin, has been protected by TPL from looting and vandalism of its grave sites. Access to traditional lands permits Indians to perform age-old ceremonies in the sacred settings used by their ancestors.

Conservation of precious land and wildlife resources is another measurable benefit of returning native lands to tribal management. At Sinkyone Wilderness Park, the InterTribal Council purchased the land under a restrictive conservation easement that guides management of the land to promote old growth forests and protect the habitat of the spotted owl. TPL also acquired and conveyed to the Nez Perce Tribe and state of Idaho an easement to protect Idaho's Burgdorf Meadows, a traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering land for the Nez Perce Tribe. This conservation easement will also protect important big game foraging habitat for deer, elk, and moose and will maintain one of the Secesh River's last remaining run of spawning summer chinook salmon.

TPL's Tribal Partnerships

The most effective way to protect and preserve lands of traditional significance to Native Americans is through acquisition, with ultimate ownership by a tribe or a nontribal government agency that will manage the land according to tribal values. Tribes, however, often lack the experience, staff, and access to financial capital to successfully negotiate complex real estate transactions. Public agencies, burdened by processes of approvals and appropriations, usually cannot respond quickly enough to compete for property on the open market. This is where the Trust for Public Land is able to step in to acquire the land or to otherwise assume site control, effectively taking the land off the market while funds are assembled that permit the land's transfer to a tribe or public agency.

TPL's particular expertise lies in discovering new sources of public and private funding for tribal lands such as the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, mitigation funds provided by private utilities or agencies, internal Army Corps of Engineers appropriations, or funding from Department of Agriculture programs. TPL leads the nonprofit community in creatively and aggressively seeking out new sources of funding that can be devoted to the conservation of tribal lands.

By raising public awareness and working in partnership with tribes, nonprofits, and public agencies, TPL is able to conserve land in ways that can satisfy diverse interests. For example, TPL was called in to find a solution to a problem involving a parcel of land in Scott County, Minnesota. The privately owned property contained a stretch of Eagle Creek, one of the last remaining trout streams in the Twin Cities area, as well as an active artesian spring known as Boiling Springs.

Native people, the state, an environmental organization, and the city all had different positions on how to protect the resource. As the land's disposition became bogged down in debate, TPL was invited to craft a solution that would satisfy all parties. TPL coordinated funding from a variety of public and private partners, negotiated an option agreement with the landowners, worked to establish trail and conservation easements, and ultimately sold the land and the easements to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. As a result, a 52-acre protected corridor of land along Eagle Creek was created, including Boiling Springs. TPL's crucial role in the project was summed up by Elliott Olson, state chairman of Trout Unlimited: "Basically, it was TPL's expertise in doing real estate deals, especially in a public environment, that made the whole thing possible. We could not have done it without TPL. Unequivocally."

Sometimes acquiring and conveying land to a tribe or agency is not an option �?especially in Western states where public ownership of more land may be regarded with hostility. In some instances, the landowners may not want to sell their property but are willing to cooperate in its conservation. North of McCall, Idaho, the conservation of Burgdorf Meadows employed TPL's experience in drafting conservation easements, successfully tapping mitigation funds, and working with local tribal groups.

Burgdorf Meadows, a 160-acre private holding in the Payette National Forest, was in imminent danger of second-home development. The threatened 94 acres provide forage for the resident big game, including deer, elk, and moose, as well as critical spawning habitat for the wild summer chinook salmon. The land was historically used by the Nez Perce Tribe for hunting, fishing, and gathering. Tribal elders as well as members of the landowner's family still remember tribal pilgrimages to Burgdorf Meadows.

The state of Idaho made the acquisition of the property a top priority and sought Northwest Power Planning Council (NWPPC) approval to use Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) funding to buy the land. When initial attempts to complete the project failed, the NWPPC requested TPL's involvement. TPL's track record in helping the BPA mitigation program meet its goals was a powerful factor in the NWPPC's decision to pursue preservation of Burgdorf Meadows. The NWPPC's two requirements for revisiting this project were that TPL and the Nez Perce play significant roles in the conservation easement.

The conservation easement that was successfully negotiated precludes development on the property and provides for the management of fish and wildlife. Thanks to TPL's innovative real estate strategy, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and the landowner agreed on an easement that protects the wildlife while allowing the land to remain in private ownership. Once the conservation easement was acquired from the landowner, TPL moved to convey the easement to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the Nez Perce Tribe. BPA mitigation funds made the easement purchase possible.

Its many successes notwithstanding, TPL and its tribal partners face ongoing challenges protecting ancestral lands from development. One site that still faces an uncertain future is Lyle Point, Washington, a 35-acre peninsula in the eastern Columbia Gorge that juts into the Columbia River at its confluence with the Klickitat River. Lyle Point is traditional salmon-fishing ground for the Yakama Nation, especially its Klickitat Band or River People, whose ancestors, some believe, are buried on the point. When the land was approved for a luxury subdivision, TPL acquired a temporary option to buy the $2.5 million property, but now must raise several hundred thousand dollars to extend its option agreement while also working to identify a long-term steward to own and manage the land.

Like the Nez Perce, the River People were a thriving population when Lewis and Clark encountered them in 1805; just 50 years later, they had been coerced into ceding most of their lands and were confined to reservations. It is to stave the continuing loss of lands important to Native Americans that the Tribal Lands Program was established.

TPL has completed many projects in the Northwest, Midwest, and elsewhere in the United States to protect native lands and to ensure tribal access and participation in their management. Under the leadership of Doug Nash, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe and an attorney with 28 years of experience in tribal law, and guided by a Tribal Lands Advisory Council, TPL's Tribal Lands Program will continue to identify and protect lands that represent the environmental, economic, and cultural legacy of America's first people and to ensure Native Americans' participation in the stewardship of their ancestral lands.

Nationally, TPL has used its conservation real estate expertise to help protect nearly 1,600 special places for parks, greenways, recreation areas, historic landmarks, forests, watersheds, wilderness, and tribal ownership. Specializing in conservation real estate, TPL applies its expertise in negotiations, finance, and law to purchase land for public use and hold it until a public agency can acquire it. Burgdorf Meadows is a prime example of TPL's ability to "pick up the pieces" when agencies have been unsuccessful in completing their conservation real estate projects. In large part due the reputation of its Tribal Lands Program, TPL was entrusted with a high-priority project that tested, and ultimately proved, TPL's ability to achieve an outcome that satisfied diverse interests.