The Return of Ancestral Lands

The documentary ‘The Return of Ancestral Lands’ highlights a rising grassroots movement dedicated to restitution and reconciliation, featuring Indigenous nations as they reclaim their ancestral territories with the assistance of non-Native allies. Three key narratives are illustrated: the Pawnee people’s reclamation of their Nebraska homeland facilitated by a land donation from a writer, the Wiyot Tribe’s efforts to repatriate a sacred island in California, and the collaborative efforts of the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes with Boulder Valley allies to reclaim land along Colorado’s Front Range.

Deb Echo-Hawk, who oversees the Pawnee Seed Preservation Project, discusses the tribe’s initiatives to revitalize traditional corn varieties within their ancestral lands in Nebraska. In an interview from March 3, 2020, held in Pawnee, Oklahoma, she highlighted the project’s collaboration with local farmers to cultivate 19 Pawnee corn gardens. Additionally, Walter Echo-Hawk, a former president of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, shared insights during a March 4, 2020 interview regarding the tribe’s history of removal from Nebraska and ongoing efforts to reclaim their homelands and grow traditional crops.