Nearly 900 acres of culturally significant land bordering Yosemite National Park and the Sierra National Forest have been returned to the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation, a historic homecoming generations in the making.
The property, transferred from the Pacific Forest Trust with support from a California Natural Resources Agency grant, includes Henness Ridge, an ancestral trail route into Yosemite Valley and a crucial wildlife migration corridor. The ridge offers sweeping views of the Merced River, the Central Valley, and Yosemite Valley itself.
For the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation, this is more than a land transfer. It is a restoration of cultural identity and stewardship. The tribe was pushed from its homeland beginning in the late 1800s to make way for settlers and the lumber trade, with the last Miwuk residents forcibly evicted from Yosemite Valley by the National Park Service in 1969.
“Having this significant piece of our ancestral Yosemite land back will bring our community together to celebrate tradition and provide a healing place for our children and grandchildren,” said Tribal Council Chair and elder Sandra Chapman. “It will be a sanctuary for our people.”
With ownership restored, the Nation plans to revive traditional ecological practices, strengthen food sovereignty, and steward the land using generations of ecological knowledge.
“We will be able to harvest and cultivate our traditional foods, fibers, and medicines,” said Tribal Secretary Tara Fouch-Moore. The Nation will also manage water quality feeding two tributaries of the Wild and Scenic South Fork Merced River.
