Land Return is not a historical debt already being settled. It is a live, present-day argument over who gets to hold title to the ground beneath us.
In this episode, we travel to Santa Fe for a conversation recorded live on the eve of the Santa Fe Indian Market with Jodi Archambault, Founder and CEO at ANPO; Dallas Goldtooth, Environmental organizer, Actor and Co-Founder of The 1491s; and Alvin Warren, Vice President of Policy & Impact at the LANL Foundation, in conversation with Rohit Menezes, Partner at The Bridgespan Group.
The conversation moves from definitions — title transfer versus co-management — to a deeper argument that land is the source of language, song, and sovereignty itself. Together, the panel presses past land return as a historical debt already being settled and toward what it would mean to treat it as an active, ongoing responsibility.
Jump straight into:
00:00 Introduction, recorded live in Santa Fe on the eve of the Santa Fe Indian Market.
03:58 Alvin welcomes the audience to Tewa homelands, in place of the show's usual invocation.
09:46 Jodi draws the line between land return, co-management, and full title transfer.
17:54 Dallas explains how “Empire accommodates, it does not liberate.”
19:49 Alvin reframes land theft as a present-day activity, not a historical one.
28:57 Jodi recounts being asked point-blank why tribes should have to buy back their own land.
33:59 Dallas on the Black Hills settlement money tribes have refused to touch.
39:22 Jodi on human rights, relatives beyond the human, and the cost of becoming “indoor humans.”
46:09 Alvin on the responsibility his ancestors were gifted, and what it demands now.
1:07:49 Alvin closes on the trillions derived from stolen land, and who shouldn't “get cheap.”
Resources
Organizations and Institutions Referenced:
ANPO — founded by Jodi Archambault, an organization focused on the interconnectedness of Indigenous lands, languages, and cultures:
https://www.anpo.org/
The 1491s — Native American sketch comedy group co-founded by Dallas Goldtooth:
https://www.allamericanspeakers.com/speakers/452181/The+1491s
LANL Foundation — where Alvin Warren serves as Vice President of Policy & Impact:
https://lanlfoundation.org/
Santa Clara Pueblo's Land Claims Rights Protection Program — established by Alvin Warren:
https://www.santaclarapueblo.org/programs/community-services/rights-protection/
California's tribal nature-based solutions program — a $100 million state investment in tribal land reacquisition referenced by Alvin, credited in part to Geneva Thompson, Deputy Secretary of Tribal Affairs at the California Natural Resources Agency:
https://resources.ca.gov/Initiatives/Tribalaffairs/TribalNatureBasedSolutionsProgram
Other Resources
“This Land” — Rebecca Nagle's podcast on tribal sovereignty and land rights, referenced by Alvin:
https://www.crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/
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