Largest land back deal in California history: 47,000 acres returned to Yurok Tribe [Video]

After more than two decades and millions of dollars, the Yurok Tribe today has regained control of its ancestral lands.

In the largest land back conservation deal in California’s history, the Indigenous tribe took ownership of roughly 73 square miles of forest land along the Klamath River. The Yurok spent 23 years working to reclaim the land, and spent $56 million in the process.

“Reacquiring landscapes like this allows us to heal, to work towards healing a wound that was inflicted not only on the land but on our hearts when these lands were taken away from us,” Tiana Williams-Claussen, Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department Director, told KTVU.

The 47,000-acre parcel of land doubles the tribe’s land holdings, and includes salmon habitats and areas with cultural and spiritual significance for the tribe.

The Yurok in 2009 partnered with Western Rivers Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that works to buy land along rivers …