Kì:li

A Mapping Project to Put
Indigenous Lands in Indigenous Hands

What We’re Doing

Kìli is a regional land return mapping project that identifies, documents, and connects pathways for Indigenous land rematriation east of the Mississippi River. We map where land return is already happening, where it is possible, and what legal, financial, cultural, and relational conditions make it viable—from ownership status and tenure models to governance structures, stewardship capacity, and capital needs. By making these pathways visible, Kìli helps communities, landholders, funders, and partners move from intention to action in ways that are ethical, durable, and Indigenous-led.

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

Despite growing interest in Land Back, most land return efforts remain fragmented, opaque, and difficult to navigate—especially in the eastern United States, where Indigenous presence is widespread but land tenure is complex. Kìli exists to address this gap. By mapping real, place-based pathways for land return, we lower barriers, reduce risk, and shift land rematriation from isolated projects to a coordinated regional practice. We believe that making these pathways legible is essential to restoring Indigenous stewardship at scale and ensuring land return is not symbolic, but lasting.

Why Kìli exists:

  • Eastern Tribal Nations control a fraction of 1% of their ancestral homelands, despite continuous Indigenous presence across the Mid-Atlantic and Appalachia.

  • Hundreds of Indigenous Nations east of the Mississippi lack a land base entirely, limiting access to housing, cultural practice, ecological stewardship, and self-governance.

  • More than 90% of conservation land in the eastern U.S. is held by non-Indigenous entities, even when those lands overlap Indigenous cultural and historical landscapes.

  • Land Back efforts in the East remain largely undocumented and fragmented, making it difficult for communities, landholders, and funders to understand viable pathways for return.

  • Indigenous land stewardship has been shown to support higher biodiversity and ecosystem health, yet Indigenous communities are systematically excluded from land ownership and decision-making in the region.