Yurok Tribe becomes first Native people to co-manage land with the National Park Service

After losing 90% of its territory during the California gold rush, the Yurok Tribe has reached a landmark agreement to reclaim 125 acres of ancestral land — and become the first Native people in U.S. history to co-manage tribal land alongside the National Park Service.

The memorandum of understanding, signed by the Yurok Tribe, Redwood National and State Parks, and the non-profit Save the Redwoods League, returns the parcel known as ‘O Rew — in the Yurok language — near the northern California community of Orick in Humboldt County. The property sits at the heart of Yurok ancestral territory and borders one of the most visited natural areas on the West Coast, drawing roughly 1 million visitors a year.

At a glance

• Yurok Tribe land return: 125 acres of ancestral land stolen in the mid-1800s will be transferred to tribal ownership in 2026 C.E., once restoration of Prairie Creek is complete.
• Indigenous co-management: The Yurok Tribe is the first Native nation to enter a formal co-management agreement with the National Park Service, setting a new precedent for how public lands are stewarded.
• Ecological restoration: Crews have already planted more than 50,000 native plants and returned thousands of juvenile coho and chinook salmon, steelhead, and red-legged frogs to Prairie Creek.

Land that was taken, land being rebuilt

The ‘O Rew property was seized in the 1800s to exploit its old-growth redwoods and natural resources. For half a century afterward, a lumber operation paved over much of the land and buried Prairie Creek, the salmon-bearing waterway at its center.

Save the Redwoods League purchased the property in 2013 C.E. and began working with the Yurok and other partners to restore it. The tribe had already spent three years rebuilding salmon habitat — constructing a meandering stream channel, two connected ponds, and roughly 20 acres of floodplain, while dismantling a defunct mill site.

“We kind of don’t give up,” said Rosie Clayburn, the tribe’s cultural resources director. “As the original stewards of this land, we look forward to working together with Redwood National and State Parks to manage it.”

What the Yurok are building at ‘O Rew

Plans for the site include a traditional Yurok village of redwood plank houses and a sweat house — structures that reflect the tribe’s deep relationship with the forest. For the Yurok, redwoods are living beings. Traditionally, only fallen trees have been used to build homes and canoes.

A new visitor and cultural center will display sacred artifacts — deerskins, baskets, and other objects — that have been returned to the tribe from university and museum collections. The center will also serve as a living hub for Yurok cultural practice and education about forest restoration.

More than a mile of new trails will be added, including a new segment of the California Coastal Trail, connecting to popular old-growth redwood groves already inside the park system.

Salmon returning, ecosystems reviving

The ecological results are already visible. Thousands of juvenile coho and chinook salmon and steelhead have returned to Prairie Creek. Red-legged frogs, northwestern salamanders, and waterfowl have followed.

This matters beyond ‘O Rew. Salmon populations along the Pacific coast have collapsed in recent decades due to dams, logging, development, and drought. Last year, recreational and commercial king salmon fishing seasons were closed along much of the West Coast due to near-record low returns.

The Yurok Tribe is also leading the largest dam removal project in U.S. history — the Klamath River restoration along the California-Oregon border — to help rebuild salmon runs across a far larger watershed.

A wider movement taking root

The ‘O Rew agreement is part of a growing Land Back movement returning Indigenous homelands across the country. Just days before this deal was signed, a 2.2-acre parking lot was returned to the Ohlone people on the site of the first human settlement beside San Francisco Bay, established 5,700 years ago. In 2022 C.E., more than 500 acres of redwood forest on the Lost Coast were returned to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, representing 10 tribes.

Still, the 125 acres of ‘O Rew represent only a tiny fraction of the more than 500,000 acres of Yurok ancestral territory. The full scope of what was taken during the gold rush era remains largely unaddressed — and formal co-management, however historic, is not the same as full sovereignty over ancestral lands.

Redwood National Park superintendent Steve Mietz called the restoration “healing the land while healing the relationships among all the people who inhabit this magnificent forest.” Sam Hodder of Save the Redwoods League said the agreement “starts the process of changing the narrative about how, by whom and for whom we steward natural lands.”

For the Yurok, the return of ‘O Rew is not a beginning — it is a continuation of stewardship that never truly stopped.

Read more

For more on this story, see: The Guardian

For more from Good News for Humankind, see:

• Indigenous land rights gain ground ahead of COP30
• Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity
• The Good News for Humankind archive on indigenous rights

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