Kentucky Lantern, 1/23/25: “An Indigenous group seeking to restore and reclaim Appalachian land recently purchased 63 acres within the boundaries of a proposed federal prison in Letcher County with the support of a coalition of groups opposing the prison project.

The Appalachian ReKindling Project (ARP), which describes itself as an Indigenous, women-led community building and land restoration group, purchased the land “to provide an alternative to the harms of incarceration” by restoring the former strip mine land through “Indigenous land rematriation practices” according to a release.

That vision for the land, according to the co-executive director of ARP who grew up in Letcher County, had to be something that was “going to invite our community to be a part of the work and “have an economically thriving option.”

“As someone from Letcher County, I know that people are desperate for job opportunities, and I felt like it was very important as we drafted our plans to be sensitive to the fact that we can’t take something away without putting something in this place,” said Tiffany, the co-executive director of ARP, in an interview. She asked only her first name be used for personal reasons.

ARP received financial support for the purchase through a coalition of local and national activists, called Building Community Not Prisons, who oppose the construction of a prison in Letcher County. The Institute to End Mass Incarceration, a national legal program a part of that coalition, helped facilitate the land purchase.”

Read the full article here.