Centering Reciprocity in Land Trust and Indigenous Community Relationships

Andre Strongbearheart Gaines Jr., Tracy Ramos, Kimberly Toney, and Pamela Ellis joined the Land Trust Rally 2024. As Nipmuc citizens, they spoke on their Northeastern woodland homelands and the impact of settler colonialism, land dispossession, and forced assimilation. They will address Aboriginal rights and their centrality to Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. They indentified best practices to support these rights such as affirmative easements (e.g., cultural easements, cultural respect agreements), educational signage and programming, and website content. Participants will learn strategies to move in solidarity with individual Tribal members, Tribes and Tribal or Indigenous nonprofits to create place-based healing and cultural revitalization and restore land access.

The challenges, successes and outcomes of this kind of collaborative work will be discussed through the lens of a collaboration between the Nipmuc-led organization No Loose Braids and the Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust as a case-study.