RAP – Rangeland Production Explorer

The RAP Production explorer enables you to compare current forage cover (updated every 16 days) for a specifc area (either drawn or using an uploaded boundary file) against 36 years of production.

New Tool for Native Land Caretakers: The Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP)

According to the NLIS’s National Land Cover Database dashboard, in 2019, there were approximately 16 million acres of rangeland within Native American reservations and off-reservation trust lands. Now, say that you are a Tribal natural resource manager, an established rancher, or land owner—it is no secret that adequately monitoring this vast land base, whether owner-managed […]

ESRI Landsat Explorer

Esri Landsat Explorer app provides the power of Landsat satellites, which gather data beyond what the eye can see. Use this app to draw on Landsat’s different bands to better explore the planet’s geology, vegetation, agriculture, and cities. Additionally, access Landsat imagery from the last forty years to visualize how the Earth’s surface has changed over time.

Completing the Narrative: Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe’s Policy Change Promotes Expansion of Native Agriculture Producers

By Raven McMullin Since the inception of the Native Lands Advocacy Project (NLAP), we have been committed to compiling publicly available datasets for the purpose of gaining a fuller understanding of Native American agriculture nationwide—and, more importantly, to compile a comprehensive data source for Native communities to utilize in the protection of their homelands.  In […]

Use of Chemicals for Croplands on Native Lands by Non-Natives Considerably More Than Use by Natives

By Evelyn Red Lodge Sicangu Lakota (Rosebud Sioux Tribe Member) Given history, it is not surprising that non-Natives collect 87% of the agricultural revenue from federally recognized Native reservation lands. What is surprising is that even though Natives operate 49.29% of cropland farms on these reservation lands, 92% of all chemicals purchased for reservation cropland operations were […]

USDA Census of Agriculture for American Indian Reservations

About this Dashboard This data dashboard presents data from the 2007, 2012 and 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture for American Indian Reservations, the most current and most complete data on reservation agriculture within the coterminous United States. Number of Variables 0 Native Land Areas 0 Years of Coverage 0 Data Visualizations 0 Possible Visualizations 0 m About […]

How Much Discriminatory Lending Practices Impact Agricultural Revenue on US Native Land

By Aude K. Chesnais Introduction: Lending and Debt on US Native Land In 2018, the Keepseagle settlement shed light on widespread lending discrimination across the native agricultural landscape. Native Americans sued the US Department of Agriculture in an attempt to settle historical lending discrimination, which resulted in a 720 million dollar settlement, split between individual […]

Sustainable Food Systems for US Native Lands: A Story Untold

The myth of an “empty land” where Natives lived idly without making good use of their natural resources is persistent and served as the primary base to justify taking lands away from tribes. Contrary to stereotypes, Native Agriculture was diverse and flourishing prior to settler colonialism.

Bison numbers increase a whopping 1031% on Native Lands!

Bison numbers increased by a whopping 1031% between 2012 and 2017 on Native American Lands. This increase far outpaces the increase in the number of bison nationally which was only 13.36%.

This is according to data from Census of Agriculture for American Indian Reservations in a newly compiled data dashboard developed by the Native Land Information System. According to the data, the bison population on native-operated farms increased over 10 fold from 308 to 3486 heads.

Non-Natives Control Majority of Harvested Cropland on Native American Reservations

According to the most recent 2017 data from the USDA Census of Agriculture for American Indian Reservations 86.33% of harvested cropland on American Indian Reservations is operated by non-natives. In total, this amounts to 3.3 million acres of land operated by non-natives compared to only 532 thousand acres operated by Native Americans (see chart below). […]

The General Allotment Act of 1887 Crippled Native Agriculture for Generations

Today, the US Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) holds 66 million acres of lands in trust for various Indian tribes and individuals. Approximately 46 million acres (69%) of this land is used for farming and grazing by livestock and game animals. However, Native Americans are not the primary beneficiaries of agriculture on their lands. According to the […]