The idea of Land Back — a growing movement to return occupied land to the Indigenous people that it rightfully belongs to, often exists as a metaphor for us. It can feel like the discussion around land theft and genocide by settler-colonists in the United States is often limited to land acknowledgments or statements of solidarity — both of which are important. But what about the most important element in these discussions — actually giving the land back? 

Today on the show, we’ve brought on David Cobb, a ‘people’s lawyer,’ self-proclaimed revolutionary, and advancement manager for the Wiyot Tribe’s Dishgamu Humboldt Community Land Trust in Northern California.

Who are the Wiyot tribe and what is their history on the land we call Humboldt County? What is the ongoing response to the attempted genocide of this Indigenous community which took place almost two hundred years ago — a horrifying and all-too-common event in the history of the settler colony which is the United States? And how has the city of Eureka worked with the Wiyot tribe to rematriate land — to actually enact the practice and policy of land back, taking it from a metaphor to a reality?

These are just some of the questions we’ll explore in this conversation. And along the way, we’ll touch on community land trusts, the global push for a social and solidarity economy, the People’s Network for Land and Liberation, the reality of end-stage capitalism, and how you can identify and support the Indigenous peoples on the land you inhabit today.  

Resources:

• Dishgamu Humboldt Community Land Trust
• Native Land Digital (find out whose ancestral tribal lands you are living in)
• The Honor Tax Project
• Legal Tools for Land Return (from Sustainable Economies Law Center)
• How to give the land back (Shareable)

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