Roughly 73 square miles (189 square kilometers) of homelands have been returned to the Yurok, more than doubling the tribe’s land holdings, according to a deal announced Thursday. Completion of the land-back conservation deal along the lower Klamath River — a partnership with Western Rivers Conservancy and other environmental groups — is being called the largest in California history.
The Yurok Tribe had 90% of its territory taken during the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s, suffering massacres and disease from settlers.
“To go from when I was a kid and 20 years ago even, from being afraid to go out there to having it be back in tribal hands … is incredible,” said McCovey, director of the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department.
Good!
That’s a great step in the right direction.
Jesus, they were less than half of 73 square miles before?
I think that’s an error on the AP’s part, since the area prior to this was about 87 sq mi (from the census). Also, anything less than 73 sq mi would mean that adding 73 more would “more than double” it; if it was 72 sq mi and you added 73, that’s a 101% increase, or more than double
Still, anything on the order of “less than 100 sq mi” is pretty damn tiny. If it was an independent country it’d be only a little bigger than San Marino
This makes me so happy
Also there looks like a fair bit of federal land that we can give back next