Since Ben & Jerry's declared on Independence Day that the United States exists on stolen land that must be returned, Indigenous tribes have been fighting 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, saying 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.
"They can prove no link to the Abenaki nation," O'Bomsawin told the New York Post. "The Abenaki people left the state of Vermont and New Hampshire [some three centuries ago] and moved to Canada."
There is no indication yet that Ben & Jerry's plans to live up to the July 4 message and return its "stolen" lands.