Ben & Jerry’s urged return of ‘stolen Indigenous land,’ tribes demand action.

Indigenous Tribes Fight Over Ben & Jerry’s Compensation

Since Ben & Jerry’s declared on Independence Day that the United States exists on stolen land that must be returned, Indigenous tribes have been engaged in a heated battle over who should receive compensation from the company for the land on which the ice cream giant built its headquarters.

“This is my territory,” Chief Rick O’Bomsawin, who leads Quebec’s Abenaki Bank Council of Odanak, said about Ben & Jerry’s property in Vermont.

“The territory that they’re speaking of is actually my people’s territory,” O’Bomsawin said. “That territory is our homeland.”

The dessert company said on July 4 that “it’s high time we recognize that the US exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it.”

The company went even further on its website, stating that traditional Independence Day celebrations can “distract” from “an essential truth.”

The notoriously progressive company then called for the United States to restore justice by ceding Mount Rushmore and surrounding National Park land in South Dakota to tribal communities.