Giving / How to Give

Consider your contribution to be a voluntary “rent” or “land tax” that represents a continuing effort and desire to acknowledge that you are a visitor living on stolen land. Monthly giving keeps the land’s original inhabitants on the forefront of our thoughts, and provides continual, reliable support for their projects. We encourage you to make a recurring contribution.

For guidance on an appropriate contribution, you can use this calculator created by the organization Honor Native Land Tax. The calculator is meant to be a guide. You know your circumstances best. If they are not reflected in the options that are laid out, pick those that are closest to your experience.

What Else Can I Do?

Land acknowledgement

Indigenous land acknowledgment is an effort to recognize the Indigenous past, present, and future of a particular location and to understand our own place within that relationship. Usually, land acknowledgments take the form of written and/or verbal statements. It is becoming more and more common to see land acknowledgments delivered at conferences, community gatherings, places of worship, concerts and festivals, etc. (from the Native Governance Center.)

• For guidance on how to craft a land acknowledgment statement, check out this guide created by the Native Governance Center.
• To go beyond land acknowledgments and move toward reparative action, read this guide!

Support land reclamation efforts

Support efforts by Native peoples to recover what is theirs. Keep an eye out for opportunities that arise in the media and in our newsletter.

Support the return of human remains and sacred objects

Call on museums to return human remains and sacred items stolen from Native peoples. Though the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) requires any institution that has received federal funding to do so, thousands of items have yet to be returned to Native communities.

Support Indigenous-led environmental work

Protect the integrity of the land by opposing projects that pollute soil, air, or water. Support local Indigenous efforts to protect land and water, and get involved with national organizations like the Indigenous Environmental Network and Indigenous Rising.

Support Movements to Stop the Epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR)

Across the United States and Canada, Native women and girls, as well as other relatives, are being taken or murdered at an unrelenting rate. The situation is made worse in areas where pipeline projects or other extractive industries are active.

Know your family’s history

How did your family end up in the U.S? Was it through a colonial process in another country? If your ancestors are from a colonizing country, what was your family’s connection to land, spiritual traditions, economies, etc. before that country began colonizing other places? Does your family own land in the U.S? If so, how did they come to acquire it? Know from whence you came

For white folks who have had their histories erased, check out programs like the Anne Braden Program by Catalyst Project, White Awake, or Coming to the Table to dig deeper into your own roots.

Start an Indigenous Solidarity Fund where you live!

Check out this guide.