'It's incredible': Seized ancestral homelands handed back to Yurok Tribe in California
The Yurok Tribe had 90% of its territory taken during聽the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s, suffering massacres and disease from settlers.
Thursday 5 June 2025 13:44, UK
Roughly 73 square miles of ancestral homelands have been returned to the Yurok Tribe in California.
The move is what is known as a "land-back" deal - where homelands are returned to indigenous people through ownership or co-stewardship.
The land-back conservation project along the Klamath River, a partnership between the Yurok Tribe and the Western Rivers Conservancy, is being called the largest in state history.
The Yurok Tribe had 90% of its territory taken during the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s, suffering massacres and disease from settlers.
For more than a century, the land was then owned and managed by timber companies - severing the tribe's access to its homelands.
However, over 73 square miles of land along Blue Creek stream and the eastern side of the lower Klamath River in northern California will now be permanently managed by the Yurok Tribe for fish, wildlife and forest health within the newly-created Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community Forest.
Western Rivers Conservancy and the Yurok Tribe established a long-term partnership in 2009 to buy 47,097 acres along the lower Klamath and Blue Creek from Green Diamond Resource Company.
It has cost the partnership $56million (£41m).
The deal to hand back the land comes amid mounting recognition that indigenous people's traditional knowledge is critical to addressing climate change.
Studies found the healthiest, most biodiverse and resilient forests are on protected native lands where indigenous people remained stewards.
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The tribe's plans include reintroducing fire as a forest management tool, clearing lands for prairie restoration, removing invasive species and planting trees while providing work for some of the tribe's more than 5,000 members and helping restore salmon and wildlife.
The area is home to many creatures, including northern spotted owls, elk, deer and mountain lions.
Galen Schuler, a vice president at Green Diamond Resource Company, the previous land owner, said the forests were sustainably managed by the firm when it managed them.
Over the last decade, nearly 4,700 square miles (12,173 square kilometers) were returned to tribes in 15 states through a federal program.
Barry McCovey Jr, whose ancestors were members of the Yurok Tribe, was involved in the effort to get the land returned to the tribe and said: "Snorkelling Blue Creek ... I felt the significance of that place to myself and to our people, and I knew then that we had to do whatever we could to try and get that back."
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Mr McCovey Jr, who is director of the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department, would have to sneak through metal gates and hide from security guards in order to fish in the Blue Creek stream connected to the Klamath River.
He said: "To go from when I was a kid and 20 years ago even, from being afraid to go out there to having it be back in tribal hands … is incredible."
The tribe aims to restore the historic prairies, but members know it's going to take decades of work for the lands and waterways to heal.
"And maybe all that's not going to be done in my lifetime," said Mr McCovey Jr. "But that's fine, because I'm not doing this for myself."