Last month, the state of California took an extraordinary stride toward righting the historical wrongs committed against California Native American tribes.
In a historic land transfer, the state of California returned more than 17,000 acres of land to the Tule River Indian Tribe — the largest land return in the Sierra Nevada foothills and the Central Valley region, to date.
As the LA Times reported, the land consists of two former cattle ranches, previously known as the Hershey Ranch and the Carothers Ranch, which sit directly adjacent to the Tribe's existing reservation.
This land return expands the tribe's more than 55,000 acres of reservation land to encompass a larger stretch of the Sierra Nevada foothills and the Giant Sequoia National Monument. As such, this area of land contains versatile landscapes, ranging from open grasslands to dense evergreen forests, making this an ecologically rich and important domain to manage and protect.
The Tule River Indian Tribe has already released on the acquired reservation land, Tule elk, a recovering elk species that had been absent from the area for decades, according to Tribal Business News. The Tribe also plans to restore the Deer Creek watershed, one of the last undammed waterways in the region, which is crucial for flood control, according to SJV Water.
Ultimately, the Tribe aims to achieve greater connectivity between the tribe's reservation lands and the surrounding environments, which include the San Joaquin Valley wetlands and the protected landscape of the Giant Sequoia National Monument. Improving the interconnectivity of these ecosystems encourages wildlife expansion, allowing previously-threatened wildlife species to recover, spread, and thrive.
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There have been a few prior land transfers throughout the country.
In August, the lipay Nation of Santa Ysabel regained ownership of over 1,000 acres of tribal land in San Diego County. Earlier in June, the Yurok Tribe regained 73 square miles of tribal land along the eastern side of the lower Klamath River. Prior to that, the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia regained stewardship of 870 acres of land along the Rappahannock River.
This most recent land transfer, however, represents more than an ecological recovery effort.
Governor Gavin Newsom's office explains that this is the "first-in-the-nation effort" to acknowledge the historical wrongdoings committed against Native American tribes in this country, and to provide meaningful redress for past harms.
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The land return "marks a critical step in deepening the relationship between the state and the Tule River Indian Tribe," said Governor Newsom, per the LA Times.
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