Kì:li
Putting Indigenous Lands in Indigenous Hands
What We’re Doing
Kìli delivers:
A public-facing, living regional map identifying current, emerging, and potential Indigenous land return sites across the Mid-Atlantic and Appalachia
Place-based case studies documenting real land return efforts, including ownership structures, governance models, and stewardship practices
A land return pathway typology outlining the legal, financial, and relational mechanisms that make land rematriation possible
Guidance tools and briefs for communities, landholders, and funders seeking ethical, Indigenous-led land return pathways
A shared regional knowledge base that connects isolated projects into a coordinated land return movement
Why We’re Doing It
Why Kìli exists:
Indigenous Nations of the East continue to live on and with their homelands, yet hold less than 1% of those lands.
Across the Mid-Atlantic and Appalachia, hundreds of Indigenous communities have no land base at all—limiting housing, cultural practice, ecological stewardship, and the exercise of sovereignty.
More than 90% of conservation land in the eastern United States is held by non-Indigenous institutions, even where those lands are part of Indigenous cultural landscapes.
Land Back efforts in the East remain largely undocumented and fragmented, making it difficult for communities, landholders, and funders to identify and pursue viable pathways for return.
Indigenous stewardship supports higher biodiversity and ecosystem health, yet Indigenous Nations in the East (particularly non-federal tribes) are still systematically excluded from land ownership, governance, and decision-making.