US government must return land it took and never developed to a Nebraska tribe under new law

WINNEBAGO, Neb. (AP) — The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska will soon get back about 1,600 acres (647 hectares) of land the federal government took more than 50 years ago and never developed.

A new law will require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to return the roughly 2.5-square-mile (6.5-square-kilometer) tract of land along the Missouri River in Iowa it took in 1970 through eminent domain for a recreation project that was never built.

The tribe has been trying for decades to reclaim the land.

“This is a truly historic moment for the Winnebago Tribe as lands that were taken from us over 50 years ago will soon be restored to our tribe,” said Winnebago Tribal Chairwoman Victoria Kitcheyan.

The bill that finally made it happen was backed by the congressional delegations of Nebraska and Iowa.

“Our bill becoming law corrects a decades-old wrong. Now, we can finally return this land to the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska,” U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska said.

The land that will be returned to the Winnebago Tribe was originally part of the reservation created for the tribe in northeastern Nebraska by a treaty in 1865. Part of the land wound up in Iowa because the Missouri River has shifted west over the years. Another parcel of land on the Nebraska side of the river that was taken at the same time has already been returned to the tribe.

In recent years, some tribes in the U.S., Canada and Australia have gotten their rights to ancestral lands restored with the growth of the Land Back movement, which seeks to return land to Indigenous people.