Indian Tribes Buy Back Land
For hundreds of years, Native American tribes have been trying to deal with U.S. government treaties. Time after time, they have received the short end of the stick. Instead, they have started buying back thousands of acres of land that use to be theirs.
The Winnebago put more than 700 acres in eastern Nebraska in federal trust, the Pawnee bought 1,600 acres of trust land in Oklahoma, three tribes have bought land around Bear Butte in South Dakota’s Black Hills.
Emily White Hat, a South Dakota Rosebud Sioux, said, “the struggle to protect the land is about preservation of our culture, our way of life and our traditions. All of it is connected. With your land, you have that relationship to the culture.”