Tribe to Reclaim a National Park Gateway

Colonial settlers forced the Yurok Tribe from their ancestral homelands in modern day California during the 1800s while exploiting natural resources, from gold to lumber. "As the natural world became completely decimated, so did the Yurok people," Yurok descendent Rosie Clayburn tells CBS News. But in a sign of healing, the Yurok will once again preside over the heart of their ancestral lands at the southern gateway to Redwood National and State Parks. In 2026, a 125-acre property, once home to a significant village, will be formally transferred back to the tribe, which will manage it alongside the National Park Service and California State Parks, marking the first time "a portion of a National Park is going to be co-managed by a Native tribe," per Oregon Public Broadcasting.

The nonprofit Save the Redwoods League purchased the Humboldt County property, called 'O Rew in the Yurok language, from an old timber mill in 2013, with plans to hand it to the National Park Service. The land and parts of Prairie Creek had by then been paved over. But during discussions with the NPS, "we began to realize that perhaps a better alternative would be to transfer the land back to the Yurok Tribe," chief program officer Paul Ringgold tells CBS. "No one knows this land better. They've been stewarding this land since time immemorial."

The Yurok Tribe, which manages the land through hunting, fishing, and controlled burns, is already working to boost the salmon population at the site. Members have constructed two connected ponds and about 20 acres of floodplain, now connected to Prairie Creek, and seen coastal salmon and steelhead return, per CBS and OPB. There are also plans to recreate the traditional village, build a visitor and cultural center to tell the history of the land, and construct new trails connecting to the national park, per OPB. The land may have been decimated alongside its original guardians, but as it heals, so do the Yurok, says Clayburn. This is "a chance to begin that healing," says NPS Director Chuck Sams, the first Native American in the role. (More Native Americans stories.)