Land Back Rights on Block Island

Block Island is an incredible example of land conservation efforts with nearly 50% of the islands open land held in land trusts and conservation. Despite this great success, an incredibly small portion of the land is actively stewarded and none of it is available for use or owned by the indigenous Manissean peoples.

In our work at ReBlockIsland we seek to always challenge ourselves and our community to do better. We realize that true land conservation and stewardship is dynamic and must center the most vulnerable community members.

This season we are continuing our work with the Maniseean tribe in supporting their efforts for land back rights and making this a constant conversation in all spaces that we enter.

We were honored to be the guest speakers at the year end meeting of the Block Island Conservancy in 2025 and received amazing support from its board members in moving forward with these efforts.

This will be a long legal process but it is our hope that by spreading awareness and gaining community support that this will become a reality. We are working with Dr. Taino Palermo and Jennifer Rawlings, Esq. of the Center for Indigenous Peoples Rights to host a community forum this May 16 at the Island Free Library, find more details on our Events Page