Washoe Tribe buys 10,000 acres in one of California’s largest ever land returns | California
The Washoe Tribe purchased more than 10,000 acres near Lake Tahoe for conservation purposes in one of the largest tribal land returns in California history.
Located 20 miles north of Reno, Nevada, the vast landscape stretches from the Great Basin to the Sierra Nevada and includes sage scrub and juniper and pine forests.
Tribal chairman Serrell Smokey said this marks a significant development for the tribe, which has been forced off its land and seen its individual allotments stolen.
“We were told we could no longer use the land for resources or ceremonies. Since then, the land has been calling us back, and we have been answering that call,” Smokey said in a statement. “This land purchase is good medicine for our people. It is a small start in healing the historical trauma experienced by generations, and the benefits will continue for generations to come.”
Today Washoe has approximately 1,500 registered members, largely divided between California and Nevada.
The tribe named the property, formerly known as the Loyalton Farm, as the Wélmelti Preserve. According to the statement, the company worked with the Northern Sierra Partnership and Feather River Land Trust on the project and used a $5.5 million grant from the California Wildlife Conservation Board as well as private donations to support the acquisition.
The cost of the property was $6 million, and additional funds were allocated for planning and assessments and to initiate an endowment to support the tribe’s long-term land management.
The sale of the property marked another milestone for the Land Back movement in California; this movement saw tens of thousands of acres of land returned to tribes who had occupied the lands for thousands of years before European colonization. Last June, the Yurok Tribe purchased nearly 47,000 acres of land on the lower Klamath River. largest deal of this kind in the history of the state. The Tule River Tribe reclaimed 14,672 acres of ancestral land in Tulare County in 2024.
Washoe’s recent acquisition will triple the tribe’s current land holdings, Smokey said Wednesday. It will also support the return of traditional cultural practices and encourage greater connection to the land among young people. “We now actually have something we can call our own,” he said.
The preserve is important habitat for wildlife, including pronghorn, mule deer, and gray wolves, and has springs and important water resources. The tribe focuses on conservation but will also use the land to house some tribal members. Smokey said part of the property was being used as a dump and needed cleanup.
The tribe hopes to purchase other property in its homeland, the Sierra Nevada.
“It is exciting to know that the people of Washoe will care for this magnificent landscape in the future,” Lucy Blake, president of the Northern Sierra Partnership, said in a statement.
