The writer David Treuer notes in a new article in The Atlantic that before Columbus arrived in North America, Native people controlled one hundred percent of the land that would become the United States. Today, they control just about two percent of it.
Which makes it especially meaningful to Indigenous people that newly appointed Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland — who now administers more of America’s land than anybody else — is herself Native. Haaland visited Utah last week to tour two controversial national monuments: Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. This Friday at noon, we’re asking what her identity as an Indigenous person might mean for how she’ll manage the nation’s public lands and waters. And we’ll ask whether or not some of that land should be given back to tribes so that they can manage it themselves.
GUESTS
- Jim Enote, a Zuni tribal member and CEO of the Colorado Plateau Foundation. He also serves as the chair of the board of the Grand Canyon Trust and lives in Zuni, New Mexico.
- David Treuer, an author and Ojibwe Indian from Leech Lake Reservation in Northern Minnesota. His most recent book is The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native Americans from 1890 through Present. <Indie Bound | Audible | Bookshop | Amazon> You can read his article for The Atlantic "Return the National Parks to the Tribes" here.