California could give Indigenous tribes ‘stewardship’ of 7.5M acres of land, coastal waters under sweeping policy

California recently gave back a beloved stretch of California’s rugged coastline to a group of Native American tribes — and it may not be the last time it happens.

In March, the state launched its first-ever Tribal Stewardship Policy and stated a goal of putting at least 7.5 million acres of lands and coastal waters into the stewardship of indigenous tribes.

“When nature thrives, we all thrive,” California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said in a statement then. “This policy confronts the harms perpetrated by our government that disrupted tribal relationships to the land. In institutionalizing tribal stewardship with our agency, we begin a new era of partnership with tribes.”

According to the policy, the state is looking at three pathways in giving tribes stewardship over the millions of acres.

Two of the options involve “collaboration” with tribes over certain lands — where decision-making over how to manage a land is shared or given to tribes — or simply giving “access” to tribes for ceremonies or natural resources.

But the most “robust” pathway, the policy said, is returning the land directly to the tribes’ ownership, which tribal groups have said is the most preferred way. While some legal requirements can make returns burdensome, the agency per the policy said it would try to find the least burdensome and most flexible ways to do so.

There have been at least four instances of land returns, most recently the the transfer of a popular Mendocino County beach from the state Department of Transportation to the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Round Valley Indian Tribes and Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians.

This February, 10,000 acres named Loyalton Ranch was purchased by the Washoe Tribe from the city of Santa Clara. A $5.5 million grant from the state wildlife conservation board enabled that purchase.

Back in 2023, the Hoopa Valley Tribe bought a 10,395-acre property in Hupa Mountain from a forest management company. Part of the $14.1 million fundraised for the purchase came from the California Natural Resources Agency’s $101 million Tribal Nature Based Solutions Grant Program and the California State Coastal Conservancy.

Similar financial help was given to the Tule River Indian Tribe last year, who purchased two ranches in the Yowlumne Hills amounting to 17,030 acres to help restore elk and other wildlife.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has trumpeted that and other land returns as a way to correct past injustices.

“The historical wrongs committed by the state against the Native people of this land echo through the natural worlds of California — ecosystems that lost their first and best stewards,” Newsom said last year.

While the policy lays out a general framework, it doesn’t spell out specific plans on what lands to return or how much of it should be returned to tribes as opposed to sharing management with them.

The California Post reached out to the Natural Resource Agency for more details on how much more and which lands it hopes to see returned under its stewardship policy.