California tribe that lost 90% of land during Gold Rush to get site to serve as gateway to redwoods

By JULIE WATSON
Associated Press

The Yurok Tribe will be getting back a slice of its ancestral land dotted with majestic redwoods and a key creek for salmon spawning. The tribe signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday with California and the National Park Service for 125 acres in Humboldt County to be transferred to the Yurok in 2026 after the restoration of salmon habitat. Officials say the tribe will be the first Native people to co-manage returned land with the National Park Service. The arrangement with the Redwood National and State Parks and the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League is part of a growing Land Back movement. It seeks to return Indigenous homelands to descendants of those who inhabited those areas long before European settlers arrived.