THE CAUSE: Protecting Sacred Indigenous sites and Native Habitats by supporting Honor the Earth.
THE CHALLENGE: Track 90 minutes of activity using your fitness tracking device (Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin, etc.). You can do this activity any way you like (lifting, running, walking, biking, yoga, etc.), but it has to be done in one day/workout. $5.74 will be donated on your behalf to protect sacred indigenious sites and Native habitats. Post a screenshot of your stats from your tracking device’s app in the discussion section of our Facebook November 2021 event page or submit your results manually on our website. One submission will be accepted per person. Submission will be accepted until 11/24/21 at 11:59 PM.
Want to go the extra mile? Your charitable donation will help support protection of indigenious spaces while also helping us continue to create programming that cultivates conversations around the complex social justice issues we face in the US. You can donate here 👉 https://www.benefitchallenges.org/take-action
THE WHY: When you think of a Native American reservation, you may think all of the land within the boundary of the reservation is managed by tribes. However, this is not the case. The General Allotment Act of 1887 (also known as the Dawes Act) was put in place with the goal of assimilating Native American into mainstream society by dividing tribal lands into individual plots for farming and agriculture (“Series: History & Culture,” 9 July 2021). In exchange, any Native American who agreed to this division of tribal land was granted US citizenship. Many plots were sold or transferred to non-native US citizens, but were still contained within reservation borders (“Land Tenure Issues,” n.d.). As a result, Native Americans lost over 90 million acres of land and resulted in a checkerboard pattern of land ownership and weakened tribal control.
This checkboarding results in a multitude of problems for Native American families including fractionated ownership; land loss; land management issues; legal and legislative issues; religious practice difficulties, and sovereignty and jurisdiction issues (“Land Tenure Issues,” n.d.). Obviously, there’s a lot that we could dive into on this topic. One of America’s founding principles is the right to religious freedom. In the majority of religions, the destruction of a physical space (church, synagogue, etc.) does not interrupt one’s ability to practice their beliefs. “For Native Americans many religious, spiritual, medicinal and cultural practices are linked to a very specific geographical location” (Justice.gov). Destruction or loss of access to a sacred site, place, or landscape results in the direct loss of cultural practices for Native Americans as there is nowhere else to exercise them outside of that specific place.
Currently, there are 574 federally recognized tribes in the US. For National American Indian Heritage Month, let’s support the recovery and control of their rightful homelands and sacred spaces. Not only should we respect sacred places, but also the people, spiritual practices, and culture of those who consider them sacred.
Dippel, Christian;, et al. “Property Rights without Transfer Rights: A Study of Indian Land Allotment,” NBER Working Paper no. 27479, July 2020, doi.org/10.3386/w27479.
“Land Tenure Issues.” Indian Land Tenure Foundation, www.iltf.org/land-issues/issues/. Accessed 20 Oct 2021.
“Native American Sacred Sites and the Federal Government.” United States Department of Justice, www.justice.gov/file/952031/download. Accessed 24 October 2021.
“Series: History & Culture in the Badlands - The Dawes Act.” National Park Service, 9 July 2021, www.nps.gov/articles/000/dawes-act.htm.