Trust in the Land: New Directions in Tribal Conservation (review)

Beth Rose Middleton's Trust in the Land is an exemplary study on the indigenization of private land conservation institutions. The book highlights and contextualizes the work of Native American and Alaska Native leaders and communities toward regaining access to and ownership of their traditional lands. Pulling together fourteen cases from across the United States, Middleton illuminates a new and exciting avenue for advancing tribal sovereignty and environmental justice in Indian country.

The book provides a thorough look at the theoretical context and history of private conservation, while simultaneously offering an invaluable practical resource for Native communities and resource managers who seek to use the tools of private conservation as means to reassert their role as the original stewards of the land. Middleton notes that the field of private land conservation, represented by land trusts (e.g., the Nature Conservancy) and conservation easements (the legal tools that land trusts use to protect specific lands from development), has historically excluded the knowledge and interests of local stakeholders. Conservation itself originated as an ideology that refused to acknowledge humans—specifically indigenous peoples—as key components of "natural" systems. Trust in the Land describes the influence that Native communities have been able to exert on the conservation movement with regard to recognizing sustainable indigenous activities on the land that may not only enhance local ecosystem health but also restore indigenous connections to the land and thus result in environmental justice and spiritual and psychological healing for Native communities.

The book is organized into three sections, which look at Native-led conservation organizations, collaborations between tribes and non-Native conservation groups (the largest section), and tribal use of federal conservation programs (specifically the Natural Resources Conservation Service). In each, Middleton details the history and social dynamics of numerous, geographically diverse initiatives, leaving the reader with clear ideas of how individual tribal nations can apply private conservation tools to their unique situations. In his own chapter, guest author Dr. Kurt Russo, executive director of the Native American Land Conservancy, explains the fine details of developing a Native land trust—an excellent resource for those who seek to get out and do this work in their communities. As such, Middleton's work as a whole bridges the divide between creating rigorous scholarly work and contributing in a practical way to the families and communities from whom the research has drawn.

Middleton situates the study in the context of environmental justice, augmented by a heavy emphasis on tribal sovereignty. The tenets of environmental justice advocate the ability of underrepresented communities (often communities of color) to have a seat at the table in environmental planning ("procedural justice"), and the recognition of disproportionate exposure to environmental contaminants by such communities in the planning process ("distributive justice"). Thus, Middleton's approach fuses together the moral imperative of her work (she writes: "private transactions that lock up lands in perpetuity should never proceed without the participation of tribes and Native families with ties to the land" [35]) with the political imperative of recognizing that through their distinct relationship with the federal government Native nations are more than ordinary stakeholders—they are sovereign entities with corresponding political rights. The coupling of environmental justice and tribal sovereignty in Middleton's approach is commendable. It leaves space for nonfederally recognized tribes (e.g., the Mountain Maidu in northern California), who may not be able to wield the term sovereignty in the same manner as federally recognized tribes (hence her inclusion of Native families, as in the above quotation). It also works in favor of removed Native nations (e.g., many tribes in Oklahoma), who, while they cannot claim to be the "original" peoples of the land, have sovereign jurisdictional rights and the responsibility to honor the spirit of the land they inhabit.

Middleton also highlights that Native land reacquisition in the context of private conservation is not always adversarial. Collaboration between Native governments and communities and non-Native...