‘A sense of home’: Native American land rights grow in industrial midwest

The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, a series of 2,000-year-old structures on eight sites around southern and central Ohio, were added to the Unesco World Heritage list in September. Photograph: Doral Chenoweth III/AP

For decades, Indigenous communities in US industrial cities have had to gather at recreation centers and in each other’s homes to celebrate ties to their cultures, says Ty Smith, a member of Oregon’s Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

But last month, the Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio (NAICCO) that Smith helps run from Columbus, Ohio, reached a goal he never thought possible: raising $250,000 to buy a small piece of rural land meant to foster Native American life and activities.