Native Land Conservancy Receives 120-Acre Cape Cod Parcel in #LandBack Transfer

1 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Nov 10

A roughly 120-acre parcel overlooking First Encounter Beach on Cape Cod was transferred Oct. 30 to the Native Land Conservancy, an Indigenous-led group based in Mashpee, Massachusetts.
The Nature Conservancy had owned the land since the mid-1980s, and Indigenous leaders and conservationists spent several years working to return it as part of the broader #LandBack movement.
Cape Cod's development pressure helped make the deal significant, with the Native Land Conservancy saying it plans to preserve habitat there for vulnerable sea turtles nesting in marsh grasses.
The site carries deep historical weight: it overlooks the area where Pilgrims first encountered the Nauset in 1620, and historians say the tribe's ancestral ties to the land stretch back tens of thousands of years.