Decolonizing Wealth Project gives $1 million to 35 Indigenous climate and conservation efforts and publishes a land return guide for funders
The 2026 round of the Indigenous Earth Fund, announced Oct. 12, drew 225 proposals asking for nearly $10 million. Alongside it, the group released Land As Medicine, a guide for funders on paying for the return of land to tribes.
New York. The Decolonizing Wealth Project, a New York philanthropy led by Indigenous people, announced on Oct. 12 that it has awarded $1 million to 35 tribes and Indigenous organizations through the 2026 round of its Indigenous Earth Fund. The money supports climate and conservation work across the United States, from salmon recovery in Alaska to buffalo ranching on the northern Plains.
The round is paid for by Liberated Capital, the group's community of givers. Dana Arviso, its director of Indigenous programs, said the fund received 225 proposals this year with a combined request of nearly $10 million.
Who received grants
The fund's page lists 2026 grantee partners in Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico, California, the Dakotas, Minnesota and other states. The group's announcement highlights seven of them. The Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission is developing a tribal salmon recovery plan for the Kuskokwim River. Native Conservancy, in Alaska, works on Indigenous food sovereignty and restoring marine ecosystems. Tanka Fund supports regenerative buffalo stewardship and, the group says, is the only known national organization working solely with independent Indigenous family and community owned buffalo ranches.
The others named are the California Indigenous Youth Collective, which builds youth leadership in land and water stewardship; the Ekvn-Yefolecv Maskoke Ecovillage in Alabama, which restores ancestral homelands and the Maskoke language; Nihikeya's Diné Agroecology Project, which addresses food and water insecurity in the Black Mesa region of the Navajo Nation; and the Water Protector Legal Collective, which provides legal representation to defend sacred sites and Indigenous land.
A guide on land return
With the grants, the group released Land As Medicine: A Practical Guide for Funders, Advisors, and Donors Exploring Land Return as a Reparative Giving Strategy. It offers case studies, historical context and practical steps for funders who want to pay for the return of land to tribes. Its central argument is that land return reaches beyond climate and conservation into economic development, food sovereignty, mental health, education and the arts, so funders in almost any field can take part.
The guide draws on the first two years of the group's California Tribal Land Return Initiative, which has granted $2.35 million to a cohort of 31 tribes and tribal organizations and supported the return of more than 17,600 acres, according to the announcement. The group says it has invested more than $17 million in Indigenous communities through all its funds. It has not said when the fund's 2027 round will open.
“With these grants and our first-of-its-kind Land As Medicine guide, we’re inviting philanthropy to deepen its commitment: trust Indigenous leadership, move flexible resources, and support the return of ancestral lands.”
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