2022 - #04: SUPPORT FOR LANDBACK CAMPAIGNS

 WHEREAS, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was established in 1970 for the purpose of advocating, planning, and promoting the unique and special educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians; and 

WHEREAS, NIEA as the largest national Native organization of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian educators, administrators, parents, and students in the United States, provides a forum to discuss and act upon issues affecting the education of Indian and Native people; and 

WHEREAS, through its unique relationship with Native nations and tribes, the federal government has established programs and resources to meet the educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, residing on and off their reserved or non-reserved homelands; and 

WHEREAS, LANDBACK is a reclamation of land and is a movement that has existed for generations with a legacy of organizing and sacrifice to get Indigenous Lands back into Indigenous hands, especially for cultural and place-based educational purposes and land-based schools; and 

WHEREAS, Native students are more likely to succeed in the classroom and beyond when they have access to education options that integrate their sovereignty, place-based tribal identity, history, culture, and language; and 

WHEREAS, the LANDBACK priorities, including the return of all public lands would positively impact Native students about their ancestral homelands and advocating efforts for these tribal communities; and 

WHEREAS, NIEA recognizes that Indigenous Peoples were fully thriving economies, 

Societies, and communities pre-colonization and LANDBACK is the reclamation of everything wrongfully and intentionally taken from Indigenous Peoples, including education, language, culture, ceremony, spirituality, governance, housing, healthcare, and kinship. 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Indian Education Association supports administrative action creating and supporting conditions for Tribal Nations to reclaim land, including: 

  • • Improving the fee-to-trust process by removing existing barriers, improving the timelines, and prioritizing the Tribal governmental and community needs; and

  • • Supporting the tribal/federal co-management of federal lands, and acknowledging co-management as one step towards the full reclamation of land by Indigenous Peoples.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the National Indian Education Association supports Federal policies and legislation in line with American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian LANDBACK priorities. 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the National Indian Education Association supports the return of Indigenous lands to Indigenous hands. 

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that this resolution shall be the policy of NIEA until it is withdrawn or modified by subsequent resolution. 

Steven Peters