The Yurok Tribe of California, who lost 90% of their territory during the gold rush of the mid-1800s, will regain some of their land as a new gateway to Redwood National and State Park, which attracts 1 million visitors. one year.
The Yurok Tribe becomes the first Native American tribe to manage tribal lands with the National Park Service under a historic memorandum signed Tuesday by the tribe, Redwood National and State Parks, and the nonprofit Save the Redwood League. becomes.
Sam Hodder, president and CEO of Save the Redwoods League, said in a statement that the agreement is “a process that changes the narrative of who manages natural lands, how they are managed, and for whom. We will start.”
City of Berkeley votes to return sacred homeland to Oron
The tribe plans to take ownership of 125 acres near Orrick, a small Northern California community in Humboldt County, in 2026 after an agreed-upon restoration of Prairie Creek, a local tributary, is completed. The site will introduce visitors to Yurok customs, culture and history, the tribe said.
This area is home to some of the world’s tallest trees, some over 350 feet tall. It is located approximately 1 mile from the Pacific Coast and adjacent to Redwood National and State Parks. The park includes one national park and three California state parks, totaling approximately 132,000 acres.
The return of this land, named “Oh Lu” in the Yurok language, more than a century after it was stolen from California’s largest tribe, is a testament to “the sheer will and perseverance of the Yurok people.” said Rosie Claiburn, the tribe’s cultural director. resource director. “We don’t give up.”
Sequoias are considered living creatures by the tribe, and traditionally only fallen trees were used to build houses and canoes.
“As the original custodians of this land, we look forward to working with Redwood National and State Parks to manage this land,” Clayburn said. “This is the work we have always done, and we have always fought for, but now the rest of the world has caught up and we know that indigenous peoples know how to best manage this land. I feel like I’m starting to understand.”
The land is in the heart of the tribe’s ancestral lands and was acquired in the 1800s to develop old-growth redwoods and other natural resources, the tribe said. Save the Redwoods League purchased the land in 2013 and began working with the tribe and others to restore it.
Much of the land was paved over by a lumber operation that had been active there for 50 years, and Prairie Creek, where salmon migrate upstream from the Pacific Ocean to spawn, was also filled in.
A land restitution movement is growing to return indigenous homelands to the descendants of people who lived there for thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers. As a result, Native American tribes have found themselves playing a greater role in restoring rivers and lands to their pre-expropriation state.
Members of the Yurok Tribe lead a sequoia canoe tour on the Lower Klamath River in Klamath, California. The tribe, which lost 90 percent of its ancestral land during the gold rush, is trying to regain some of its land under an agreement with California and the state government. National Park Service. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard, File)
Last week, the 2.2-acre parking lot was returned to the Oron people, who established the first human settlements along San Francisco Bay 5,700 years ago. In 2022, more than 500 acres of redwood forest on the Lost Coast will be returned to the Intertribal Sinkyone Conservation Council, which is made up of 10 tribes.
‘O Rew’s holdings represent a small portion of more than 500,000 acres of Yurok Nation ancestral land that spans 44 miles of the lower Klamath River. The Yurok Tribe is also helping lead the largest dam removal project in U.S. history along the California-Oregon border to restore the Klamath River and increase salmon populations.
‘O Rew’s plans include a traditional Yurok village of redwood plank houses and sweathouses. There will also be a new visitor and cultural center that will display a number of sacred artifacts, from deerskins to baskets, returned to tribes from university and museum collections, Claiburn said. .
The center will include information about redwood and forest restoration and will also serve as a hub for tribes to practice their traditions, she said.
This will add more than a mile of new trails, including a new section of the California Coastal Trail, and feature interpretive exhibits. This trail will connect to many of the park’s existing trails, including the popular Sequoia Wilderness.
The tribe had already spent three years restoring salmon habitat on the property, building a meandering stream channel, two connected ponds and about 20 acres of floodplain, while also demolishing the site of a decommissioned mill. . Crews also planted more than 50,000 native plants, including grassy sedges, black cottonwoods, and coastal redwood trees.
Coordinating watershed-wide management responsibilities with the National Park Service and California State Parks is key to restoring these fish runs, the tribe said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Salmon were once abundant in the rivers and streams that flowed through these redwood forests. But dams, logging, development, and drought (partly due to climate change) are destroying waterways and threatening many salmon. Last year, recreational and commercial king salmon fishing seasons were closed across much of the West Coast due to near-record low numbers of the iconic fish returning to their spawning grounds.
Thousands of juvenile coho salmon, Chinook salmon, and steelhead have already returned to Prairie Creek, along with red-legged frogs, Northwestern salamanders, waterfowl, and other species.
Redwood National Park Superintendent Steve Meats praised the area’s restoration and tribal repatriation, saying it is “healing the land while healing relationships between all the people who live in this great forest.” Ta.
