The Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation was given back its territory bordering Yosemite National Park, a move that some activists hope is a milestone in their goal of obtaining large swathes of land that belong to Native Americans.
The 900 acres of land, roughly 1.4 square miles, were returned to the tribe by the nonprofit organization Pacific Forest Trust, which was able to transfer the territory through a grant from California’s Natural Resources Agency Tribal Nature-Based Solutions program. The land does not include any territory within Yosemite and is dwarfed by the 1,169-square-mile park.
Although the size of the land is small, some activists hailed the move as a landmark in land acquisition.
“Having this significant piece of our ancestral Yosemite land back will bring our community together to celebrate tradition and provide a healing place for our children and grandchildren,” Sandra Chapman, Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation’s Tribal Council chairwoman and elder, said in a statement. “It will be a sanctuary for our people.”
Tribal Secretary Tara Fouch-Moore said in a statement to Native News Online that the tribe plans to use the land to “harvest and cultivate our traditional foods, fibers, and medicines and steward the land using traditional ecological knowledge, strengthening our relationships with plants and wildlife, and benefiting everyone by restoring a more resilient and abundant landscape.”
The transfer is the latest initiative from the CNRA’s Tribal Nature-Based Solutions program, which facilitates land transfers to Native Americans. Established in 2023, the program was touted as a first-of-its-kind initiative to hand land over to Native Americans.
The California Grants Portal says the program will “support the return of ancestral lands to tribal ownership and stewardship, planning and implementation of habitat restoration projects, protecting our coast and oceans, advancing wildfire resiliency and cultural fire, and so many more multi-benefit nature-based solutions projects across California.”
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The Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation previously inhabited an area that included some land within Yosemite. However, they were displaced by the Mariposa War from 1850 to 1851, which was a consequence of the California gold rush.
The California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force announced in May 2024 that the CNRA granted $107.7 million in funding for 33 projects to facilitate the return of roughly 38,950 acres of land through the program.