More than 1m acres of Indigenous land flooded by dams, new study finds

Land dispossession and depravation was a mainstay strategy used by settler colonials to divide and disempower communities

More than a million acres of tribal land - an area larger than the state of Rhode Island - have been flooded by dams, compounding centuries of land seizures and forced displacement by settler colonials and the US government, new research has found.

Land has always been central to Indigenous culture, sovereignty and prosperity, while land dispossession has been a mainstay strategy used to divide and disempower communities, by depriving Indigenous people of clean water, traditional food sources, spiritual connections and economic opportunities.