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The Washoe Tribe has purchased more than 10,000 acres of land near Lake Tahoe for conservation in one of the largest tribal land returns in California history.
The sprawling property, located 20 miles north of Reno, Nevada, stretches from the Great Basin through the Sierra Nevada and encompasses sagebrush scrublands and juniper and pine forests.
It marks a key development for the tribe, which was forcibly removed from its lands and saw its individual allotments stolen, said the tribe’s chairperson, Serrell Smokey.
“We were told we could no longer use the land for resources or ceremony. 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. This is a small start to healing from generations of historical trauma, and the benefits will go on for many generations to come.”
Today there are about 1,500 enrolled members of the Washoe, largely split between California and Nevada.
The tribe has named the property, previously known as Loyalton Ranch, the Wélmelti 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, according to a statement.
The property cost $6m, and additional funding was set aside for planning and assessments and to start an endowment to support the tribe in its long-term management of the land.
The sale of the property is another milestone for the Land Back movement in California, which has seen tens of thousands of acres returned to tribes that occupied the land for millennia before European colonization. Last June, the Yurok Tribe acquired about 47,000 acres near the lower Klamath River as part of the largest such deal in state history. The Tule River Tribe regained 14,672 acres of its ancestral land in Tulare county in 2024.
The Washoe’s recent acquisition will triple the tribe’s current land holdings, Smokey said on Wednesday. It will also support the return of traditional cultural practices and foster greater connection with the land among youth. “Now we actually have something to call ours,” he said.
The preserve is an important habitat for wildlife, including pronghorn, mule deer and gray wolves, and has springs and key water resources. The tribe is focused on conservation, but will also use the land to house some tribal members. Parts of the property have been used as a dumping ground, Smokey said, and clean-up is needed.
The tribe hopes to purchase other properties across its homelands in the Sierra Nevada.
“It is exciting to know that the Washoe people will be caring for this spectacular landscape going forward,” Lucy Blake, the president of the Northern Sierra Partnership, said in a statement.
