Donald Trump’s return to the White House will mark the end of a nascent partnership between the federal government and Native American communities on the management of federal land and water resources that are claimed by those communities. Instead, Trump has promised a raft of policies to open federal lands for business opportunities and to put more of them under private management. His pick for Interior secretary, Gov. Doug Burgum (R-N.D.), has deep connections to fossil fuel companies and makes clear the incoming administration’s intentions to open more land for oil and gas drilling.

The federal government controls nearly one-third of the country’s land area, and land under state and local government ownership adds to this total. Essentially all of those lands were previously claimed by Native Americans — and many still are. These communities have been calling for the expansion of a model of land and water stewardship that directly involves tribes in management and preservation.

The Biden administration encouraged tribal management of several federal tracts of land in recent years. In June 2022, for example, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service formalized a partnership with a group of five tribes to co-manage Bears Ears National Monument. And last month, the government and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration........

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