Podcast: Colorado’s $1.17 trillion land theft and impacts on Native Nations

“Investors need to think about how they can help, because this is not your typical kind of return on investment. Your return on your investment is reestablishing the honor of the American people and their government.” —Rick Williams

In this exclusive interview for GreenMoney Talks, Richard B. Williams, scholar, Oglala Lakota elder and chair of the Truth, Restoration and Education Commission (TREC) discusses key findings from TREC’s Historic Loss Assessment report, which quantifies Colorado’s $1.17 trillion land theft against the devastating economic and ecological losses experienced by Native Nations displaced by U.S. expansionism. Williams also shares insights into addressing injustices and the path forward for reconciliation, equity and restoring Indigenous self-determination. 

Prepared by Village Earth for People of the Sacred Land’s Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission (TREC), the Historic Loss Assessment report examines specifically land dispossession and value of the dispossessed land, loss of life, mineral and fossil fuel extraction, water rights, agricultural losses, extermination of buffalo, and habitat destruction. 

"The truth is that there is no way to quantify the pain and intergenerational trauma experienced by Colorado’s Native communities,” says the report. “However, we hope this report inspires dialogue and recommendations for how we can begin to mend all that has been broken between Colorado’s original inhabitants and the settler community.”

Listen to the full episode at GreenMoney Journal; part of GreenMoney’s February 2025 issue Indigenous Peoples & Impact Investing.