The stories of California’s indigenous populations have included very few happy endings in the last few hundred years. I learned about one such inspirational story in an L.A. Times article by Ian James.
The Yurok Tribe in northwest California recently regained some 73 square miles of habitat in a deal that took 23 years to complete. It may be the largest “LandBack” deal in California history.
The Yurok reservation was established in 1855 on a small fraction of the Yurok tribe’s ancestral lands around the Klamath River and the Pacific Coast.
Not long after, white settlers and speculators encroached by buying, bribing, and fraudulently acquiring additional lands to harvest timber, according to the Times article.
Bribery and fraud also were among the ways local Chumash lands came to be held by European immigrants.
In 1840, for example, the Chumash band living at Cieneguitas (roughly Modoc Road and Encore Avenue) was the largest remaining Chumash group.
About that time, two Chumash women were able to confirm the village’s traditional land rights through a judge. A document recording their statement was signed by the county district attorney and filed in the recorder’s office.
Legal documents did not prove sufficient.
A century later, a young UCSB historian named Gregory L. Schaaf uncovered the sordid story of Hope Ranch. Schaaf interviewed secondary sources and perused thousands of documents in Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, and at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
G. Pascal Zachary reported Schaaf’s research in a 1981 Santa Barbara News-Press article.
Schaaf found that in 1854 Thomas Hope, an Irish immigrant, was granted an unpaid position as “special” Indian agent to protect the rights of the indigenous living in the Cieneguitas area.
Hope acted in various capacities, including discouraging the practice of hiring Indians for a week of work while paying them only in “Indian rum.”
That same year, at the request of his supervisor, Hope sent a map and certificate of ownership to the federal Indian Affairs Office confirming the Chumash right to Cieneguitas. As late as 1856 more than 800 Chumash families lived in the village.
So far, so good. Yet, white settlers were already encroaching. One man had claimed the northern part of Cieneguitas and stolen about 900 head of cattle. A scant three years after the 1856 population count, a U.S. cavalry officer estimated only 40 Chumash remained.
Despite his position as protector, by the 1870s Hope acquired nearly all the Chumash land in the Hope Ranch area. Evidence shows he purchased some land at extremely low prices.
He paid a couple $30 for their property, for example, leasing it back to them for $20 per year. Soon, more than 100 indigenous were servants for 34 Hope Ranch families, including Hope’s.
The Yurok LandBack was accomplished by a Portland-based nonprofit called the Western Rivers Conservancy.
They cobbled together funds from foundations, corporations and philanthropists. Combined with tax credits, public grants, carbon credit sales, and state funding and efforts from California’s Wildlife Conservation Board and State Coastal Conservancy, the pool came to over $56 million.
Nelson Mathews, president of the Western Rivers Conservancy, noted, “This is the result of commitment, persistence and tenacity.”
Tribal lawyer Amy Bowers Cordalis observed that the return of the lands allows the tribe “to start rebuilding and to start taking care of our land and our resources.” She said they are committed to living in a balance with the natural world.
It would be more than courageous to picture Hope Ranch reverting to its Chumash owners any time soon.
The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, however, has taken its own baby step. NOAA’s website for the new sanctuary created in December 2024 states:
“With intention and respect, a key priority for this sanctuary is to provide meaningful opportunities for interested tribes and Indigenous community members, including individuals with knowledge of Indigenous culture, history, and environment, to participate in collaborative co-stewardship of this special place.”
Several LandBack projects along the Central Coast are currently being led by yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe of San Luis Obispo County, including the return of Diablo Canyon lands and the purchase and revitalization of a 350 acre abalone farm.
LandBacks and sustainable earth management: there could be more happy endings in the future.
Landback projects with ytt: https://yttnorthernchumashtribe.com/lands-back-stewardship-restoration.
Abalone farm project: https://yttnorthernchumashtribe.com/abalone-farm-land-back.