Tag:boundary=aboriginal_lands

The boundary=aboriginal_lands tag should be used for mapping the official reservation boundaries of recognized aboriginal / indigenous / native peoples. These areas go by a variety of names in different countries, such as Indian Reserves in Canada, Indian Reservations in the United States, Indigenous territory in Latin America, or Territory of Traditional Natural Resource Use in Russia, to name some common examples.

While the specific status of these areas differs by country, they generally share two things in common:

1. These regions have special legal status for the benefit of aboriginal peoples, and different laws may be enforced within these regions. The aboriginal groups usually have some form of self-governance in these areas.
2. These regions are mutually recognized between the aboriginal peoples and the occupying/colonizing government, and their boundaries are not in dispute. (The fact that some aboriginal groups may claim much larger areas and may be negotiating for an expansion of their reservations does not change the fact that the existing boundaries are mutually recognized as the current legal situation).

Tagging

Required:

• Use boundary=aboriginal_lands to mark the jurisdiction area.

• Usually this tag is added to a relation of type=boundary, but sometimes it is applied to an area (closed way) or a relation with type=multipolygon.

Optional:

• population=number of people living in the reserve if known.
• website=[web site of the reserve ''web site of the reserve''] if it is available
• wikipedia=* to link Wikipedia article about this specific reserve or people living in it, if it is available.
• description=description of the reserve to help further identify it.
• ethnic_group=* to specify the people or group of the reserve. Examples: Yakama, nukak, papuan.
• source=* to mention the official source for the boundary.

Sample Areas

Here are some areas already mapped as boundary=aboriginal_lands:

• Yakama Indian Reservation https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/7320420
• Westbank First Nation https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/12300678
• Resguardo El Gran Sábalo, https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1088225638.

Software support

Original proposal for rendering aboriginal lands in OpenStreetMap Carto, showing Washington State.

As of November 2025, several renderers depict boundary=aboriginal_lands, including OpenStreetMap Carto, CyclOSM, Tracestrack Topo, and OpenStreetMap Americana. OpenMapTiles includes these boundaries in vector tiles but not in the style of the same name. Nominatim can find these boundaries. CoMaps, Organic Maps, and OsmAnd can also find these boundaries but do not depict them on the map.

Synonymous tags

boundary=aboriginal_lands largely replaced the combination of boundary=protected_area and protect_class=24, which was seen as insensitive. As of December 2025, only 19 occurrences remain worldwide [1], down from a high of about 500 in 2019. [2]

Incorrect tagging

• leisure=nature_reserve - Do not tag aboriginal lands as nature reserves, unless they are also established for that express purpose. Before the approval of the boundary=aboriginal_lands, many people used leisure=nature_reserve to get these areas to show up on the map. In most cases, this is incorrect tagging for the renderer.