California announces largest land return in state's history 

They bought the land . The state did not return the land

California let them BUY the land back so the State does not have to pay for care to mitigate wild fires. Its a good thing. I hope folk will learn from what Aztlan's know.

For those thinking they paid for the land, they got the land for free, here is why. According an article at The Guardian, it was privately owned, then “Western Rivers Conservancy, a Portland-based environmental group, etched a deal to purchase the land and hand it over to the US Forest Service. Working on behalf of the tribe, the conservancy secured a $4.5m grant from the California Natural Resources Agency to cover the land purchase and studies of the area.” So California Natural Resources Agency paid for it.

This is what the Northern Cheyenne Tribe is doing as well. We seek out land and purchase it the moment it comes for sale, even if it puts us into dire straights. For example, we bout part of our sacred land in Sturgis SD, a company was trying to purchase the land for a bar during the Sturgis rally. However, we found the money and kept it safe. Now we use it as a national conservatory and will be there for our children in the future.

The difference between California land management and Native American land management is that California lets the brush become overgrown, California tries to stop fires when they occur - vs. Native American land management that uses fire as a preventative tool to keep the forests healthy. Forest fires are a natural part of that ecosystem for many tens of thousands of years, the Native Americans understanding of this is a deep part of their culture.

It’s awesome to see that their ancestors continue he’s to teach them their traditions and ways and work with nature ❤

Being good Steward of the Earth 🌎 Is what will be blessed

Scientists are learning that the Brazilian rainforests was not only occupied by people for thousands of years before Europeans arrived in South America, but those ancient people were actively "farming" the forests in ways that were completely unfamiliar to Europeans, which led them to conclude that no one lived in the forest. New archeological finds are refuting that. It would seem the practices archeology is discovering with Brazil was wide-spread in the western hemisphere.

I hope they take better care of it than did California. I think the distinction of them buying it back should have been more clear rather than implying the state gave it back as a gift.

Trees tell what went happened on the land

Pay all you want. You own nothing if the government says so. None of us are free.

Take care of MOTHER EARTH 🌎 🙏

I know there are tens of thousands of real estate investors who are crying buckets of tears over this decision and my heart is warmed by it.

That sounds like a gift but it’s a huge responsibility & costs a lot of money to keep it up. It’s now the tribes responsible to take care of this land & protect it.

It is Forest Service, not forestry service.

Breaking news, cbs news anchor has never heard of an orchard before

Old, dead trees are extremely important to biodiversity though. It's the same for undergrowth, etc.

they deserve the land to be returned to them! they shouldn’t have to pay for what is there’s

What a beautiful place!

Title is very misleading. These people bought this land that happened to be their ancestral land nothing was returned by anyone THEY fought for that land. Give credit where credit was due and call it like it is after hundreds of years they are finally able to remember their lost lands and relatives where they should be. Home. Shouldn’t have had to have been bought it shows the breed but I’m happy for THEM not the state.

BIG AG has destroyed everything from Oxnard to Watsonville. The El Camino Real.

What a gorgeous landscape. I’m from back east. I live in the west and I miss the huge giant oak trees of MI where I grew up.

Honor all treaties

Give the whole thing back. New management could only improve the place.

This news item makes it sound like the US forced this tribe from their land but it was the Spanish. Also, this was one of the smallest tribes in California. Not sure why they're being transferred 14,000 acres. "Historically, they were one of the smallest Native American populations in California. Various experts estimate there were from 500 to 1,285 individuals living in the steep, rocky region at the time of the arrival of the Spanish. Due to their proximity to three Spanish missions, they were likely one of the first whose culture was virtually eliminated as a result of European contact and domination.[1] The people were believed to have been exterminated but some tribal members avoided the mission life and emerged from the forest to work in nearby ranches in the early and late 1800s. Descendants of the Esselen are currently scattered, but many still live in the Monterey Peninsula area and nearby regions."

I’m happy for them. 😊

Believe it or not...trees can live without humans tending to them.

The Indigenous people of Northern Wisconsin do forestry and keep it beautiful there! This is beautiful land, and yes, the trees will connect with humans! Thank you to the tribal people for sharing this information with us, and I am thrilled you were able to buy this land, which I am assuming was a huge amount of money! This is fabulous news!

*I live near Thousand Oaks & always wondered why the older oak trees look different than the younger* Quite interesting! 😌

A little over 100 years ago the tree's were harvested for heating fuel. Fire mitigation is a solution to wildfires.

Time will tell what kind of blessing this is. Maybe it's good, maybe bad.

So glad they got it back… even though they had to pay for it.

What an incredible news piece and interviewed this was so interesting to learn about all the different ways that people have been managing the ecosystems around us for thousands of years it’s incredible. I’m glad this knowledge is being preserved and passed on because being good stewards of the earth is the only job we have.

Great to see how land management is finally going to some that know how through centuries of ancestral knowledge.

Some of those oaks are 400 years old for sure

Do you remember when land was...... $500 for , 500 acres.

Brings me to tears to realize how much this country has neglected such a beautiful place. America is one of the prettiest countries on Earth, and the way this government and the corporations destroy it just breaks my heart. I pray to God justice is brought to the land, and that the people that honor it get a chance to become united with it again.

I grew up in Monterey in the seventies and eighties, and spent a lot of the time in the woods, catching salamanders and treefrogs, ringneck snakes, gopher snakes, alligator lizards and other local herps. Monterey, Carmel Valley, Laguna Seca, the Salinas area, Los Padres National Forest, Big Sur... These are the kinds of lands that those animals live in, and anything that can be done to protect the land from becoming overdeveloped is good with me, as long as people can still access the land and do some herping now and then.

Outstanding work and Grand Respect to this Tribe.. Magnificent landscape of trees is so impressive for the soul.. I love this bigtime 💕🇮🇸✌️😊💕 Thank's for sharing

They would never do this in Australia in a million years.

Thank you so much for this story. Please continue to share solutions focused stories like this!

It's about time they have their own land back ❤ I'm very happy for all of them also beautiful people and gorgeous landscape

Control burning also will prevent invasive species and diseases

So many lessons need be learned from indigenous people who still know the old ways.

Seems like the ultimate insult to be made to buy back land that was stolen from them

It's amazing how the native American can really speak English this perfectly and pronounce these types of foods in such a perfect way that most of us born in America from California or Midwest can't even speak on these products this way the way he speaks on these food products he's really an experience farmer and he's really an American and I guess it's kind of like reparations!

That is a very beautiful place...

WHY do they have to BUY BACK their OWN land? That is not a land 'return'. It's a start, but we need to do BETTER by indigenous First Americans.

This just in: high heels and unpaved surfaces don't mix.

The land is a natural garden, it's all we need. We've forgotten how to care for Mother Earth and just use her until there's no more. We are reaching our limit on 75% of the surface land.

any management other than government and corporation management is better

One win at a time.

I'm going to buy a AI cat that's so advanced that it makes more money than me! 💰 🐈

Did she say “all of this land is yours?” How strange to say ‘ yours’.

Natives know NO MAN OWNS THE LAND!!!!

what about the reservations? the ones in bad repair?

The Natives knew what they were doing long before the settlers came.

Hopefully no casino will ever be built there.

I hope they don’t build a casino on it , honor the land not the casino

They aren’t federally recognized, therefore they can’t have a casino. They can’t take the land into trust either.

.❤️❤️❤️👏👏👏 i’ve always had such a love for oak trees, especially the huge beautiful ones with a large canopy. The knowledge Native Americans have on how to care for and farm is so wonderful. I’m blessed to live near this area and hope to go to that specific meadow someday.

Natives weren't vegetarian, they hunted and ate animal for their main source of protein. They def know land management and how to burn and shape the land...for meat. Oak acorn is just a tiny part of diet, as with other forage. Yall seemed to gloss over the details.

this is so dumb... the right of conquest exists, every tribe has conquered other tribes and stolen their land. who owned the land before this tribe? they should give it back to them... who owned it before them? they should give it back to them. you see the issue with this idiotic idea? collective ancestral guilt is dumb, stop punishing or rewarding modern day humans for something that happened 100+ years before they were alive. in SD the Lakota Sioux took the land from the Cheyenne, the Cheyenne took the land from the Kiowa and the crow, they took it from the Comanche and Arapaho. this concept of moving ownership to the most recent owner is idiotic and runs into many issues. the right of conquest has always been known throughout humanity, you only own the land if you can defend it and hold onto it, if you cant someone else will own it.

Thank God! Finally just in time

Wow, great news for a change. This should have happened decade’s ago

Other Tribes should sue the government and get as much of their land back as possible!

What is disgusting is they let rappers who are currently alive as well as their victims have status of limitations… but yet here you have people receiving things that no one alive today was involved in…. Crazy…..

Who lived on the land before this tribe?

Modern society can learn so much from native peoples especially when it comes to respecting and preserving the land. That is truly a gorgeous healthy tree where the woman were, as were the others. Care for nature and it will thrive instead of become an ever present danger.

That’s beautiful, That’s the way to preserve our precious land. He has deep wisdom, understands the trees. God bless them.

on both sides the people living today had nothing to do with what happened way back in history.....this is ridiculous giving deals to a group of people who had nothing to do with and are currently unaffected by what happened hundreds of years ago....same with the whole reparation thing

The guy probably not even Indian I don't know

Dang Cali Native Americans don't even look Native anymore, they're all mixed

Native Americans did not turn to the Earth native Americans tended to their needs whatever they needed they took from the earth just like everyone else does stop romanticizing native Americans and stop letting native Americans romanticize their own culture which was pretty much Savage .

Looks like sum Not Right !

I don't believe that the forest is there because of anyone. These forests were there for millennia

Land belongs to those who can hold it and keep it.

The state did not give him back the land that is shameful I'm pretty sure they gave him a good price they're not casino owners and they're not going to be doing any of that there they just want their that part of their land back what a sad country we are now we are sadder than sad I feel that with all the things that's happening now that the land has come now with the way the world is might not even be worth it because people people around there once they destroy everything else or destroy them too

GIVE IT ALL BACK TO THE NATIVE AMERICANS. THEY KNOW HOW TO PRESERVE IT PROPERLY!!!❤❤❤

Great News! Now who will help us European Americans get our ancestral land back from the migrants from the Middle East and Africa?

You mean the people who lived there for thousands of years actually knew what they were doing? Imagine that. I wonder what the world would be like if every person tended to a few trees each?

It sounds like they bought the land back, not that it was given back. 🤔 Being stewards of the land is something that many cultures do and have done in the past. Mismanagement in certain areas is a HUGE issue and fire risk; particularly out west. Sometimes it can be something as simple as not firing fireworks during a drought in dry areas. 🙄 Many people used to do controlled burns and land management far better; it is why some areas still have their trees. Including settlers and what some consider “Europeans”. Many of us still do this back East, like where we are in Pennsylvania. It is a lot of work and often cost. You can both plant crops and manage forests on farms; my family’s been doing it for generations. Getting rid of dry brush, dead limbs, and other tinder when you can before it gets too dry is a necessity for prevention. That is something some scientists and forest management advisors have gotten wrong in the last decades. Then they claim to come up with a new idea… which is traditional practice and common sense to many of us. Unfortunately, not everyone realizes the necessity of zones of trees and woods for biodiversity, weather barriers, wildlife, erosion, and whatnot. Look at golf courses, developments, and the like. Woods give a place for pollinators to live and thrive around homes and fields as well. Clearing everything is still done wrong all over. The hardest hit places were by people who stripped the land of resources for the now, without care of the future. Preserved places or reclaimed places were/are cared for by those who thought of all the past, present, and future. It’s good to acknowledge more of this and hopefully encourage others to do the same. I wish them all the best and hope other locations out there adapt the best practices better as well.

California will always be the best state. Look at how proud Oklahoma is of being the Sooner State.

In time, the United States will return all that was stolen. That movie "Killers of the Flower Moon" left me deeply disturbed as I had never heard of the story before. All these white guys running to Oklahoma to "marry" a native girl to get her family wealth just left me cold. It was a horror story even without the murders. Part of why "reparation" with respect to native tribes is far less antagonizing is that land is tangible----you can see it, feel it, touch it---and it lasts beyond human lifetimes. However when it comes to former slaves, what was taken was inchoate and incorporeal; things like "spirit" , "honor" , "pride" are unquantifiable, and those from whom it was taken died long ago.

Oh sounds like they weren’t savages. Wonder what else they’ve gotten wrong? Always leaving the laundry detergent on the playground.

I hope they can move back on it

They came from Siberia.

That's true reparation

Hopefully the land isn't plagued with water rights allocation.

The reason humans generally do crop versus forest farming is because growing crops produces significantly more consumable food by an order of magnitude in some cases. So, let's keep things in perspective. - Plant a native tree in your area and nurture it until it gets established.

Now it’s Mexico 🇲🇽 needs the rest back

Wow! That man looks no more native American than a Cusack Warrior in the Ural Mountains. I champion his movement. I just don't believe anything they are saying

Finally. Thank you. That takes a lot of Balls California 🦬 Sincerely Wyoming °~•.💙.•~°

Hmmm, difficult to understand why someone is accountable for something someone’s ancestors did? No one alive today was wronged by the past. No one from today has harmed my family. All through history we have had conquered peoples. Should we tear down the pyramids? History has many victims. And will have many more. If you think this justifies or rectifies, you’re mistaken.

Native man: we've been tending these forests with fire for thousands of years White guy: no, don't do that 200 years later, white guy: good idea, we should try that

Canada has been doing this for decades and the the native people there still live in poverty.

Nd now he’s gonna put up a casino and million dollar condos🤣

So much healing and shifting going on in the world I love it! 😻

Only the indigenous people can restore and revive diversity of life because they are close to nature and authentic in their struggle for the mother nature.

now every state