More than a century after their land was ravaged by the California gold rush, Yurok tribe to reclaim land

Source: CBS News

Updated on: December 16, 2024 / 7:40 PM EST


Rosie Clayburn is a descendant of the Yurok Tribe, which had its territory — called 'O Rew in the Yurok language — ripped from them nearly two centuries ago. "As the natural world became completely decimated, so did the Yurok people," she said. That decimation started when miners rushed in for gold, killing and displacing tens of thousands of Native Americans in California and ravaging the redwood trees for lumber.

"Everything was extracted that was marketable," Clayburn said. "We've always had this really intricate relationship with the landscape. We've hunted, we've fished, we've gathered. And those are all management tools. Everything that we do has been in balance with the natural world."

Now, generations later, 125 acres bordering Redwood National and State Parks will be handed back to the Yuroks. The nonprofit Save the Redwoods League purchased the land in 2013 from an old timber mill, with the original goal of giving it to the National Park Service.

"As we continued conversations about the transfer of this land to the National Park Service, we began to realize that perhaps a better alternative would be to transfer the land back to the Yurok Tribe," said Save the Redwoods League's Paul Ringgold. "No one knows this land better. They've been stewarding this land since time and memorial"

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/redwood-national-park-land-returned-yurok-tribe/