What Does Tribal Land Stewardship Look Like?
By Steve Dubb
Non-profit Quarterly
May 1, 2022
To understand Native land stewardship, it is important to recognize that it occurs within a context of repairing the ravages of colonialism. A new report, Models of Historic Tribal Land Stewardship in the Northern Great Plains, published by the First Nations Development Institute and authored by Mary Adelzadeh, examines these themes as it highlights efforts by four Native nations in Montana and South Dakota to restore stewardship principles to land management.
The report offers some lessons learned from a project, “Mapping Ecological Stewardship Opportunities,” which was supported by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies. The resources involved were modest ($240,000 total), but the ambition was large—namely, to assist Native nations to “regain control of their land and natural resources, revitalize traditional stewardship practices, and build sustainable stewardship initiatives that contribute to tribal economic and community development opportunities” (5).