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Whose Land Are You On? What to Know About the Indigenous Land Back Movement | Lindsey Schneider |TED

Land thrives in Indigenous hands, and there are real, tangible ways you can help return what was stolen by colonizers from tribes across North America. Indigenous scholar Lindsey Schneider addresses the ill-gotten legacy of settler colonialism with an introduction to the Land Back movement: the push to return stewardship of the Earth to its rightful…

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Land thrives in Indigenous hands, and there are real, tangible ways you can help return what was stolen by colonizers from tribes across North America. Indigenous scholar Lindsey Schneider addresses the ill-gotten legacy of settler colonialism with an introduction to the Land Back movement: the push to return stewardship of the Earth to its rightful guardians and restore balance to ecosystems for generations to come.

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74 Comments

74 Comments

  1. Pacmon Kruz

    January 3, 2023 at 4:50 pm

    Colonist definitely would treat land like a relative.

  2. Pacmon Kruz

    January 3, 2023 at 4:51 pm

    Question – what if I want to join a native group?

    • Eric Bennett

      January 3, 2023 at 7:46 pm

      I believe you can present any genealogical evidence to the tribe(s) you’re descended from and ask them what your options are. NPR did a segment on this a while back.

    • Pacmon Kruz

      January 3, 2023 at 11:27 pm

      So I can only help or be part of the group only based on my race ?

  3. chocomalk

    January 3, 2023 at 4:53 pm

    There were three waves of “Indigenous peoples” over a span of 15000 years….so, who are the “original”? And does it matter? And what is the cut off point to be “indigenous”? And just in case you missed it….they are NOT indigenous if they migrated FFS.

    • level Joe

      January 3, 2023 at 6:04 pm

      These uncomfortable facts must be ignored, or it will jeopardize the position of “You owe us.”

      Humans are an invasive species in the Americas. So either we all leave or they can STFU.
      …End of story…

  4. chocomalk

    January 3, 2023 at 4:55 pm

    lol I’m sure any area that is not industrialized could be said to be “thriving”…what is this crap?

  5. rtrevas

    January 3, 2023 at 5:04 pm

    Nobody should have a claim on land, the earth should be everyones land and everyone includes all living species

  6. aristochat3

    January 3, 2023 at 5:08 pm

    I hope you feel the same way about Palestine.

    • Eric Bennett

      January 3, 2023 at 7:48 pm

      Boycott. Divest. Sanction. ✊

  7. Corrie

    January 3, 2023 at 5:13 pm

    2 more points most ppl intentionally fail at understanding- 1) stewardship is NOT industrial ownership. She is not advocating for industrial ownership. Stewardship is a *healthy* relationship (sane, mature, grounded, and all people agreeing on a shared version of reality) built on the foundation of holistic wellness, meaning if the land is well then I am well, and if I am truly well (not the western medical industry standard of wellness) then the land will be well. 2) stewardship of land can and should be collaborative with all people who are willing and able to be in a healthy relationship with that land. Just because a tribal group has formally acknowledged “ownership” in the legal sense of modern western society doesn’t mean that all other humans of other descent can’t and shouldn’t be invited to unlearn their industrial conditioning and relearn how to be a human being on a finite and complexly and delicately interconnected planet. Legit stewardship also includes past and future generations in all decision-making and stealing or borrowing from the future is not a part of that (which is how industrial culture and its myth of limitless growth economy works)

    • mynameischarles

      January 3, 2023 at 7:33 pm

      We have land stewardship though, arrived at through our democratic processes. What she is proposing is removing land from the democratic process and giving tribes more automomy on the false premise that they are inherently better at it which given the indigenous peoples involvement in oil sands development is a very debatable statement. There is nothing to say the current governments can’t do land stewardship, its that we value other things so it is not a high priority. While there is certainly a debate about how high land stewardship should be that is a political question for our democracy to resolve not a question for indigenous governments to resolve at the exclusion of everyone else.

    • Corrie

      January 3, 2023 at 7:52 pm

      @mynameischarles you don’t understand what land stewardship really is. Industrial culture (what you call our democratic government) hasn’t stewarded anything, legitimately. It is true sustainability, not just having a few rules to keep people from dumping toxic waste into a river or something. We are currently in abrupt, exponential climate chaos as the result of ecological overshoot and collapse which is, at root, a failure by individuals and their society, namely modern governments built on the industrial paradigm, to relate to all of the planet as a living organism and family of relatives, rather than a resource to extract from and deposit waste onto. There is almost no example of true sustainability in our modern culture. For anyone truly capable of being a grown up and open to learning more, one resource (just one example of many, btw) is a video here on YT by Rev Micheal Dowd entitled Sustainability 101: Indigenuity Is Not An Option.

    • Corrie

      January 3, 2023 at 7:57 pm

      @mynameischarles and also selecting the example of “indigenous involvement in oil sands” as a way to negate and completely dismiss the FACT of effective land stewardship by original people, is just more cherry picking your narrative that you like. Also I personally feel (as I mentioned elsewhere) that all people capable of relearning connection with the land and unlearning their industrial conditioning (that land is to be used for resources and waste storage rather than living biophysical creator sustainer and end) should participate and not be excluded based on their genetic heritage.

    • level Joe

      January 3, 2023 at 9:04 pm

      @corrie8659  What might be in the future (future generations) has no effect, ZERO, on what happens now or on what has happened in the past.
      That is nonsensical to even assume it does. We could all be dead next year due to cataclysm or for all you know. There are no guarantees in anyone’s future to rely on.

      You may want to try to interject a faith based argument, but that’s not what we are talking about. Not all faiths have the same tenants so it’s foolish to even try to bring that into this.

    • level Joe

      January 3, 2023 at 9:21 pm

      @corrie8659  How about the devastated mega fauna by the indigenous?
      How about herding animals off a cliff?
      We can find plenty of examples of the eary residents behaving in unethical ways.

      Just because they had primitive ways in the past doesn’t mean they were/are better stewards.
      Oil sands is just a more recent example, and it shows that they are no different than anyone else.

  8. Home Wall

    January 3, 2023 at 5:15 pm

    Yes, regular people make no use of the resources “the rich” uncover and put into products and services. We all just sit on dirt and eat what we hunt and gather between songs and dance.

    While some of these groups are doing great, it’s absurd to pretend that only natives restore lands, and certainly not that natives make no use of modern life.

  9. Brett

    January 3, 2023 at 5:18 pm

    No, colonialism didn’t work. There’s still some of you around. Colonialism needs finishing.

  10. PARADOXICLES

    January 3, 2023 at 5:31 pm

    all land, belongs to all people….. the world is for all of us, not just some. It dosnt matter where or when you were born, the earth is home to everyone. Its time to grow up and act like it.

    • level Joe

      January 3, 2023 at 6:47 pm

      You’re willing to give away all you have?

      Prove you don’t own anything and start by giving away your phone.

    • PARADOXICLES

      January 4, 2023 at 12:43 am

      @level Joe does any of what you said have anything to do with anything i said, or anything in the video?……….. nope, it dosnt…… learn how to stay on topic

  11. Dennis Cambly

    January 3, 2023 at 5:42 pm

    Without love we can no longer look out confidently at the world. We turn inward and begin to feed upon our own personalities, and little by little we destroy ourselves. Chief Dan George

  12. s3tione

    January 3, 2023 at 5:50 pm

    I totally agree that what happened in the past is terrible and I also agree that we should be treating the land as a relative. I have concerns about what Land Back, or unsettling, looks like scaled up because these ideas don’t seem well thought through. Are we talking about a slow migration through attrition of non-indigenous out of North America? This leads me to a point of disagreement: that this is the only way to protect the earth. Seems like a better solution is one that involves all of us, not just a special collection of cultures and peoples. With that said, might there be a way for non-indigenous people to join in land stewardship instead of simply leaving?

  13. Sentient Sandwich

    January 3, 2023 at 6:16 pm

    And those tribes stole land from other tribes and enslaved and raped the women and killed the babies. That was life then. The Apaches did this to my tribe because they got pushed west by the Comanche who stole everyone’s land. Do I get reparations from Apaches? Do tribes in Africa owe each other for land stolen in the 1700s? This is asinine.

  14. Davelantor

    January 3, 2023 at 6:17 pm

    Let me ask a different question … whose land were they on ? And whos land were those people on ?
    And so on and so on …
    To assume that territorial expansion somehow didnt exist beforehand is the attitude you must use to make such argument.

  15. Brian McInnis

    January 3, 2023 at 6:36 pm

    Indigenous means born into. All humans are indigenous to some locality. Land is not born and so is not indigenous. The word you seem to be looking for is aboriginal (‘original inhabitants’), but land is not that either. Land does not belong to anyone, but any organisms can and certainly do pretend to possess it.

    • level Joe

      January 3, 2023 at 6:48 pm

      We do possess land.

  16. mynameischarles

    January 3, 2023 at 6:47 pm

    This whole movement is a denial of self determination to all the so called settlers. We make decisions on land use democratically moving land to jurisdiction of native bands is to move it from democracy to something else. Also the words ‘ good’ and ‘bad’ or similar do a lot of heavy lifting. Whos says pipelines are good or bad, some people would say they are better than the alternative of rail transportation making them better then the alternative. Fact is the fact that land use decisions are arrived at democratically is way more important then if someone thinks they are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ which are relative terms depending on someone’s prospective.

    That is not a good thing at all.

  17. jon

    January 3, 2023 at 7:56 pm

    And how do you know the land was not stolen from another tribe or race of people?
    BS

  18. Margaret

    January 3, 2023 at 8:15 pm

    The rich stays rich by spending like the poor and investing without stopping. Then the poor stays poor by spending like the rich yet not investing like the rich

    • Ashley S. Emily

      January 3, 2023 at 10:29 pm

      That’s 100% true ✅ Please how do I start trading with her?

    • Robert Hwang

      January 3, 2023 at 10:53 pm

      What’s apq
      ⏬⏬

    • Robert Hwang

      January 3, 2023 at 10:53 pm

      Пчелен мед

      +𝟭𝟯𝟭𝟱𝟱𝟱𝟰𝟵𝟳𝟰𝟴

      Пчелен мед👍👎

    • Robert Hwang

      January 3, 2023 at 10:53 pm

      Trade with her and remember to share testimonies with others ☝️😊..🇺🇸🇺🇸

    • Diana Sarah

      January 3, 2023 at 10:58 pm

      Thank you for this. Will definitely reach out to her now. Thanks again

  19. krninja22

    January 3, 2023 at 8:39 pm

    Its fine. I identify as indigenous and therefore am the rightful owner of my land. Thanks TED! Ain’t no white man gonna take my land away.

  20. Imran Nazir

    January 3, 2023 at 9:29 pm

    Yes, and Palestine should return to its indigenous people, the Palestinians.

  21. Henry Collins

    January 3, 2023 at 10:18 pm

    I imagine it was no one’s land. Then someone took it, then it was taken again, and again. Then Europeans did.

  22. dabadaba

    January 3, 2023 at 10:53 pm

    We are all on a World of shared land yet some think they can own parts of it.

  23. Aidan Farrell

    January 3, 2023 at 11:06 pm

    Stop clapping at random moments Jesus…

  24. Austin Denotter

    January 3, 2023 at 11:20 pm

    A true windian.

  25. MeoithTheSecond

    January 3, 2023 at 11:32 pm

    Realistically coming generations by hook or by crook will just sell that land to the highest bidder.

  26. Jimboner08

    January 4, 2023 at 1:55 am

    This is liberal propaganda.

  27. Marcus Boswell

    January 4, 2023 at 2:02 am

    Grow up and be serious.

  28. Tilde

    January 4, 2023 at 2:47 am

    I bought my land from the government, who bought it from someone else. Maybe at one time this plot belonged to some natives but whom did they steal it from? Native or not, we’re all vicious humans. But I didn’t take it, and now it’s mine. And that’s okay.

    • brad

      January 4, 2023 at 4:10 pm

      Amen

  29. ey b0ss

    January 4, 2023 at 3:06 am

    Who’s land am I on? Does this lady not realize that 99% of Americans today didn’t choose to live, never mind choose to be born where they had? Maybe she ought to go deliver this speech in my local colonial era graveyard

  30. It's Jen

    January 4, 2023 at 3:21 am

    My husband and I don’t have kids, and we don’t think his sisters want our farm. We were looking to leave it to a land trust, but instead, we’re going to do this. He’s part Kanien’kehá:ka, and though I’m white and Jewish, I have always been very sympathetic to indigenous people. I truly love these people. To be part of Land Back would be a great honor.

    • shadytoast

      January 4, 2023 at 4:47 am

      I’ll take it

    • Hobby Grade

      January 6, 2023 at 12:34 pm

      @shadytoast no, no you won’t

    • shadytoast

      January 7, 2023 at 2:18 am

      @Hobby Grade i mean yes i would

  31. JT

    January 4, 2023 at 4:00 am

    it’s the white mans

    bc we won

    deal

  32. Cosmic Warrior Princess Harmony

    January 4, 2023 at 4:38 am

    The rightful guardians of the Earth are those who want to take care of the planet. It is not the primary reserve of specific people. The rightful guardians of the Earth is everyone on the planet regardless of whether they realize it or not.
    This planet belongs to The Cosmos. Everyone is here to learn and grow.
    And Earth will grow, change and adapt as humans grow, change and adapt.
    If we fail her she just might spew us out.
    Instead of trying to kick non-natives out, teach them the wisdom of the natives.
    That’s how you evolve the civilization.
    By sharing.

  33. Adalbert Red

    January 4, 2023 at 5:52 am

    I’m not convinced. In my present cynicism I see everywhere guys trying to profit on the back of other people. The natives have a present leverage to pretend they have nonexistent solutions to problems they never encountered.

  34. OD

    January 4, 2023 at 6:51 am

    I only support land acknowledgements because I think it would be hilarious if this mind virus eventually spread to the Middle East, and every public function had to start with a ridiculous multi-layered land acknowledgment guaranteed to piss off everyone regardless of their identity. That would be worth seeing.

  35. Pamela Anderson

    January 4, 2023 at 7:00 am

    I wonder if they took educational and professional opportunities as well (multiple times) with contrived events? Just curious.

  36. Backwoods Bastard fka Spektr540hemi

    January 4, 2023 at 7:38 am

    Everyone alive today are born from colonizers and the colonized.

  37. Zen

    January 4, 2023 at 8:55 am

    Oh, my God, what a story, beautiful cutie 📃📃📃📃📃📃📃📃📃📃📃📃☺️

  38. Yithmaster

    January 4, 2023 at 9:42 am

    Sorry but it was purchased or conquered. I’m not sorry that a People Of hunter gatherers who claim that you couldn’t own land lost to an industrialized agricultural society

  39. Marcus Eli Ravage

    January 4, 2023 at 9:49 am

    Currently, a tribe called Blackrock owns alot of the land.

  40. Robbie Dubes

    January 4, 2023 at 10:54 am

    If I’m on it it’s my land

  41. Carol Chen

    January 4, 2023 at 11:33 am

    great

  42. Charlie

    January 4, 2023 at 12:27 pm

    The Inuit are on the Dorset land, why didn’t you advocate for the Inuit to give back the land to the Dorset. The Inuit erased the Dorset. The Inuit took the Dorset land. Sadly, no Dorset survived, so who is the Inuit going to give the land back to?

    Indigenous people have been fighting over the land long before Europeans arrived, which people, then, can claim to be the rightful owners?

    If we’re going to talk about colonization and land back then we must talk about all instances of colonization to include the colonization of indigenous people by other indigenous peoples, such as what the Inuit did to the Dorset. Anything less is intellectually dishonest.

    • brad

      January 4, 2023 at 4:09 pm

      Yes, but people like to pretend indigenous colonisation didn’t exist because they are innocent Angels

  43. Sapiens

    January 4, 2023 at 3:30 pm

    The Planet Earth is for all to enjoy. As long as we respect the people, fauna and nature within it. Land ownership ultimately destroys the indigenous and wildlife in it by white man.
    We are only temporary here and will be gone within the next few hundred years. Then Mother Nature and wildlife if any are left can heal and replenish….

  44. brad

    January 4, 2023 at 4:04 pm

    Common Ted L

  45. SAYONARA GAMING

    January 4, 2023 at 7:26 pm

    I suppose everyone is here to improve listening 😂

  46. G Know

    January 5, 2023 at 7:51 pm

    you listening Calgary Flames?

  47. William Buchanan

    January 6, 2023 at 1:24 pm

    To claim ownership of land is an illusion of war

  48. Darren D

    January 7, 2023 at 4:07 am

    I identify as a Native American/First People. I am open to anyone giving “my” “land back”. Thx 🙏🏼

  49. Darryl Sherborne

    January 7, 2023 at 9:15 am

    Instead of this landback idea, why don’t tribes offer land management and treatment services?

  50. Entabeni

    January 7, 2023 at 12:39 pm

    The opposite is true here in South Africa, its the settlers that brought knowlegde, technology, law and order. Return of rule over the land to the indigenous only caused havoc, theft and destruction

  51. MydogTobes

    January 7, 2023 at 10:49 pm

    Yeah, the Crusades happened 5000 years ago and the land “belonged” to them too….

  52. Craig McDonald

    January 8, 2023 at 10:10 pm

    How many years do we go back? In Israel, they fight each other because their land was stolen in 200 B.C.E. In 1540 Hernando de Soto met the Siouan in western North Carolina; fifty years later the Cherokee came in and took the Siouan’s land. My people lost their land to the Vikings that invaded Scotland. Tell me, how far do we go back in time to fix things?

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