Washoe Tribe returns over 10,000 acres of ancestral land back to its people
SIERRA COUNTY, Calif. – In what is the largest land return in the Sierra Nevada and third largest in California, the Washoe Tribe now owns 10,274 acres northeast of Lake Tahoe, announcing the historical and culturally significant acquisition on Wednesday, Feb. 11.
“It’s a full level of healing of historic trauma that is passed down through generations of our people, knowing that we once flourished in these areas,” Washoe Tribe Chairman Serrell Smokey said, recalling the painful history of his people being removed from their ancestral land, stolen allotments and being disallowed to use the land for resources and ceremony. “We’re now able to come back to that and have a place of our own.”
The tribe has called the land the WélmeltiɁ Preserve after the band of Washoe people that once lived there. Having descended from this group, it has a deep personal connection for the chairman, who says the land has been calling them back.
“We are answering that call,” Smokey said. “This land purchase is good medicine for our people.”
Formerly known as Loyalton Ranch, these ecologically significant homelands span from the sagebrush and grassland-laden Great Basin and up to the conifer and aspen-decorated Sierra Nevada. The property also holds culturally important pinyon forests and is abundant with streams and wildlife, including pronghorn, elk, mountain lions and even gray wolves.
It is bordered primarily by public lands managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Acquiring the property triples the tribe’s land holdings.
The chairman expressed the Washoe people’s collective desire to never see the property developed along with goals for restoration and conservation of the land for plants, foods, and medicine, as well as preserving it for future generations.
“It’s always been said by former leaders of the Washoe Tribe that the health of the land equals the health of the people,” Smokey said.
The Tribe also plans on restoring traditional cultural practices on the property, and connecting Washoe youth back to the land and their native language through educational opportunities. The Washoe Tribe will also conduct cultural assessments to find cultural sites.
The tribe purchased the $6 million property through its Waší·šiw Land Trust, a Washoe-led nonprofit formed in 2025 to return ancestral lands to the Washoe People. Partners, including the Northern Sierra Partnership, Feather River Land Trust and the California Wildlife Conservation Board raised $6.9 million for this project. Remaining funds after the land purchase are going towards an endowment for the WélmeltiɁ Preserve’s long-term stewardship.
“We really see bringing indigenous stewardship back to the landscape as critical to our overall goals of protecting this place we call home,” Jennifer Norris said, executive director of the California Wildlife Conservation Board, which provided a $5.5 million grant to help with the transaction.
Though it is the first land returned through the Waší·šiw Land Trust, the tribe doesn’t intend for it to be the last.
“This is a small start to healing from generations of historical trauma,” Chairman Smokey said, “and the benefits will go on for many generations to come.”
