THE LAND RETURNS
Land Back isn’t just a slogan or a pipedream.
It’s happening now in communities across America.
The Land Returns chronicles a surprising new way that Indigenous nations are regaining some of the land from which they were dispossessed 150 years ago. Across the United States, tribes and Native organizations are working with non-Native individuals, communities, and organizations to return land to its original stewards as part of a growing grassroots movement of restitution and reconciliation.
The Land Returns focuses on three of many Land Back stories:
1) the Pawnees’ return to their Nebraska homelands
2) the repatriation of a sacred island to the Wiyot people of northern California
3) efforts by the Arapaho and Cheyenne to regain some of their land on Colorado’s Front Range.
This uplifting film takes us into the quiet but powerful movement to right the wrongs of the past through local action.
What People Are Saying
"a life-affirming testament to the transformative power of healing the past"
-- Beth Piatote, Nez Perce author
"A forthright reckoning with the injustices of the past and a spirit-lifting remedy for fatalism."
Patty Limerick, author of The Legacy of Conquest
“This beautifully optimistic film lays out the challenge and deep satisfaction of bridging Indigenous and settler worlds.” —Anne F. Hyde, 2026 President Western History Association
“Memorable and powerful, The Land Returns shows that Indigenous dispossession was but one chapter in the long and ongoing history of Native peoples on the continent.”
—Claudio Saunt, author of Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession ofNative Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
“This deeply moving, people-driven film documents a rising movement for tribal justice rooted in land restoration and community reconciliation.”
—Vicki L. Ruiz, winner of National Humanities Medal