Northern California’s Redwood Forest Has Been Returned to Indigenous Ownership

A 523-acre grove of historic redwood trees is being restored to Indigenous ownership in the Lost Coast of Mendocino Country, California. The area, officially known as Andersonia West, was purchased for $3.55 million by a conservation group named Save the Redwoods League in 2020. The league just stated that this natural forestland will be transferred to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a non-profit coalition of ten Northern California tribes dedicated to environmental protection for “past, present, and future generations of life.”

“This location is within Sinkyone traditional territory,” says Priscilla Hunter, chairwoman of the Sinkyone Council. “It has been and continues to be an important area for the Sinkyone people for thousands of years, and it holds great cultural significance for the Sinkyone Council and its member tribes.” Second-growth redwoods, Douglas-firs, 1.5 miles of Anderson Creek, and various endangered kinds of wildlife, like the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet, may all be found on this significant piece of land.

The land was renamed “Tc’ih-Léh-Dû” by the Sinkyone Council, which means “Fish Run Place” in Sinkyone. “Renaming the property Tc’ih-Léh-Dû makes it clear that it is a holy site for our Native people. It demonstrates to them that there was a language and that people lived there long before now,” says Crista Ray, a Sinkyone Council board member. For years, California has been ravaged by wildfires, and this relationship between the league and the council aims to help the state recover “through tribal stewardship.”

InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a coalition of ten Northern California Tribal Nations, has been given a 523-acre redwood forest in Mendocino Country, California.