The Washoe Tribe purchased more than 10,000 acres of land near Lake Tahoe for conservation in one of the largest tribal land returns. California history
A sprawling property 20 miles north of Reno, Nevadaextends from the Great Basin through the Sierra Nevada and includes sagebrush scrub lands and juniper and pine forests.
It marks a critical development for the tribe, which has been forced off their lands and robbed of its personal allotments, said tribe chairperson Serell Smokey.
“We were told that we could no longer use the land for resources or ceremonies. Since that time, the land has been calling us back and we are answering that call,” Smokey said in a statement. “This land purchase is good medicine for our people. It is a small start to healing from a generational historical trauma, the benefits of which will continue for many generations to come.”
Today, Washoe has about 1,500 registered members, largely divided among them California and Nevada.
The tribe previously named the property the Loyalton Ranch, the Velmelti Preserve. It worked with the Northern Sierra Partnership and the Feather River Land Trust on the project and ultimately used a $5.5m grant from the California Wildlife Conservation Board as well as private donations to support the purchase, it said in a statement.
The property cost $6m, and additional funds were earmarked for planning and assessments and to start an endowment to support the tribe in the long-term management of the land.
The property sale was another milestone for the land back movement in California, which returned tens of thousands of acres to tribes that had occupied the land for millennia before European colonization. Last June, the Yurok tribe seized nearly 47,000 acres near the lower Klamath River. Such a huge deal In the history of the state. The Tule River Tribe reclaimed 14,672 acres of ancestral land in Tulare County in 2024.
Smokey said Wednesday that Washoe’s recent acquisition would triple the tribe’s current land holdings. It supports the revival of traditional cultural practices and fosters a greater connection with the land among young people. “Now we really have something to call our own,” he said.
The preserve is an important habitat for wildlife including pronghorn, mule deer and gray wolves and contains springs and key water sources. The tribe focuses on conservation, but also uses the land to house some tribal members. Parts of the property have been used as a dumping ground, Smokey said, and are in need of cleanup.
The tribe hopes to purchase other properties on its homeland in the Sierra Nevada.
“It’s exciting to know that the people of Washoe care about this wonderful landscape,” Lucy Blake, president of the Northern Sierra Partnership, said in a statement.
