The Land Returns · Episode 3 of 14 · 21 min
The United States: Trust, Buy-Back, and Co-Stewardship
The episode examines how the United States actually moves land back to tribes: the federal trust relationship, the Cobell-funded Land Buy-Back Program, fee-to-trust, and the 2021 co-stewardship order behind Bears Ears. It then turns to a California surge through conservation buyers, and weighs whether those gains last as monument protections shift.
Who's who
- Elouise CobellBlackfeet lead plaintiff in the trust-fund mismanagement suit
- Deb Haaland+1 more episodeInterior Secretary who signed the 2021 co-stewardship order
- Tom Vilsack+1 more episodeAgriculture Secretary who co-signed the order
- Barack Obama+3 more episodesproclaimed Bears Ears National Monument in 2016
- Donald Trump+11 more episodesreduced Bears Ears in 2017 and was expected to again in 2026
- Joe Biden+4 more episodesrestored Bears Ears in 2021
Where it happens
- Bears Ears National Monument, Utah+2 more episodesco-managed by five tribes with federal agencies
- Canyon de Chelly, Arizonamonument on Navajo trust land
- Pico Blanco, Little Sur River, Californiasacred lands returned to the Esselen
- Blue Creek, Klamath River, California47,097 acres returned to the Yurok Tribe
Timeline
- 1887Dawes Act splits tribal land into individual parcels
- 2009Cobell settlement of about $3.4 billion announced
- November 2021Joint Secretarial Order 3403 on co-stewardship signed
- January 15, 2025327 acres at Pico Blanco conveyed to the Esselen
- May 30, 2025final Blue Creek acres conveyed to the Yurok
Still debated
Whether the recent wave is durable is the central tension, because co-stewardship rests on a monument rather than tribal title and can be reversed. Tribal critics also note co-stewardship often means consultation rather than truly shared authority.
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