Co-stewardship is really just US babysitting tribes

Our neighbors to the west, the Cochiti and Zia Pueblos, the Santo Domingo and San Felipe reservations, were hit hard by the Trump Virus where tribal authorities have been restricting travel for non-members. New Mexico is home to twenty three Indigenous nations.

Ahead of the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit and as part of the Cobell settlement the Interior Department's Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations, some three million acres in fifteen states are being returned to Tribal trust ownership. In February the Interior Department and Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the use of $31 million so the Klamath Tribes can acquire nearly 90,000 acres of private land within their historic reservation boundaries for ecosystem restoration and economic development. 

But, Republicans in Arizona and Utah are challenging President Joe Biden's authority to limit grazing permits and uranium mining on Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument and on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. 

Under the 1906 Antiquities Act and the America the Beautiful initiative President Joe Biden has moved to create the 400,000-acre Dolores River Canyon Country National Monument in Mesa and Montrose counties in Colorado but imagine the blowback if Pres. Biden remands that land back to the Ute Nation. 

Co-stewardship is a broad term that describes agreements made between federal agencies and tribal nations to hash out shared interests in the management of federal lands. Co-management refers to a stronger tribal presence and decision-making power. In 2022, the federal government agreed to co-manage Bears Ears National Monument with the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Pueblo of Zuni. For the first time ever, tribal nations worked with federal agencies to draft a resource-management plan that would dictate how a national monument should be run. [What’s the difference between Indigenous nations co-managing or co-stewarding their land? A lot.]

Established by Pres. Bill Clinton in 2001, Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument is very popular in New Mexico but remains closed because it’s co-managed with the Cochiti Pueblo who is still challenged by COVID-19 exposure. 

But, the de facto repatriation of one tiny parcel to an Indigenous community is hardly monumentizing gone wrong. In fact, it could be a giant leap toward reconciliation.

On May 14, we celebrated the historic reacquisition of 10,395 acres of #AncestralLands by the @HoopaTribe! Thanks to the leadership and expertise of Hoopa Valley tribal leaders, these lands and their resources have a bright future ahead. #tribes #LandBack @ca_coastal @30x30CA pic.twitter.com/7o195jd0dm

— California Natural Resources Agency (@CalNatResources) May 23, 2024