A report published this week by a Native American-led nonprofit examines in detail the expropriation of $1.7 billion in indigenous lands in Colorado by the state and the U.S. and the more than $546 million the state reaped in mineral extraction from them.
The report, shared first with the Associated Press, identifies 10 tribal nations that have “Indian title, congressional title and treaty title to lands within Colorado” and details the ways the lands were taken legally and illegally. It determined that many of the transactions directly violated treaty rights or, in some cases, lacked title for a legal transfer.
“After we were removed, they just started dividing the land, creating lots and selling it to non-Natives and other interests and businesses,” said Dallin Mayberry, an artist, legal scholar and enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe who took part. of the Truth, Restoration and Education Commission, which compiled the report.
“When you think of examples of land theft,” Mayberry continued, “this is one of the most egregious cases we have seen.”
The commission was convened by the People of the Sacred Land, a Colorado-based nonprofit that works to document the history of indigenous displacement in the state. The commission and its report build on similar truth and reconciliation commissions that have sought to comprehensively explain the genocide and the people still affected by those acts and government policies.
The report also recommends actions that can be taken by the state, federal government, and Congress, including honoring treaty rights by resolving illegal land transfers; compensate affected tribal nations; restoration of hunting and fishing rights; and charge a 0.1% tax on real estate deals in Colorado to “mitigate the lasting effects of forced displacement, genocide and other historical injustices.”
“If recognition is the first step, then what is the second step?” Mayberry said. “That’s where some of the treaties come in. They have guaranteed us health, well-being and education, and we simply want them to keep those promises.”
This could be similar to what happened recently in Canada, where, following the conclusion of a truth and reconciliation commission in 2015, the government set aside $4.7 billion to support indigenous communities affected by its Indian residential schools. .
The U.S. currently has no similar commission, but a bill co-sponsored by Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla), a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, and Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan), a citizen of the Ho-Chunk Nation , would establish a commission to research and document the long-term effects of the Indian boarding school system in the U.S. That measure passed the House Education and Workforce Committee on Thursday with bipartisan support.
“The United States carried out a federal policy of genocide and extermination against Native peoples, and its weapon against our youngest and most vulnerable was the Indian boarding school policy,” said Ben Barnes, chief of the Shawnee tribe, who testified before Congress in support of a commission to investigate the ongoing effects of boarding schools.
“The next step is reconciliation and healing for the generations who have dealt with the trauma that followed, which begins with establishing the Truth and Healing Commission to investigate further,” Barnes said.
The 771-page report also calls on Colorado State University to return 19,000 acres of land that was taken from several tribal nations through the Morrill Act, signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1862, which used expropriated land to create land-grant universities in All country.
In 2023, the university committed to committing $500,000 of the proceeds from its land-grant properties. But although the commission praised this decision, it stated that “there are doubts about its appropriateness, given the resources that were generated by the endowment created by the sale and/or lease of stolen lands”.
A university spokesperson told the AP that the school did not have the opportunity to review the report, but noted that “revenue from the land endowment fund is used for the benefit of Native American faculty, staff and students.”
The commission also found that Native American students in Colorado have lower high school graduation rates and higher dropout rates than any other racial demographic. Mandated that state schools teach about Native American issues only once in elementary school and then again in U.S. history classes in high school, and called on the Colorado Department of Education to increase the amount of its curriculum that focuses on the stories , languages, and modern cultures of tribal nations that are indigenous to the state.
The education department said in a statement that it is “committed to uplifting and honoring our indigenous communities.
“We worked alongside tribal representatives to create a culturally affirming fourth-grade curriculum focused on Ute history fourth-grade curriculum and made it available to our school districts and educators,” the statement added.
However, this educational program is not mandatory throughout Colorado, where curriculum decisions are made at the local level.
A 2019 study found that 87% of public schools in the US do not teach about indigenous peoples in a post-1900 context and that most states do not mention them in their K-12 curricula.
“They should be an integral part of the curriculum, especially in areas where there is a high percentage of Native Americans,” said Richard Little Bear, former president of Chief Dull Knife College in Montana and a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe. “There has to be a large-scale effort.”
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Brewer is a member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team, based in Oklahoma City. Follow him on X at @grahambrewer
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