Land area
Land of the Mendocino Indian Reservation in California, ceded 1868 (area 522)
- 1856
Set aside as a reservation
The 1899 record: “President set apart Mendocino reserve in California in compliance with recommendation of Superintendent Henley of Nov. 17, 1855”
- 1868
Taken back by the United States
The 1899 record: “Congress restores Mendocino Indian reesrvation to public domain”
In the record
Set apart as the Mendocino Indian Reservation in California by executive order in 1856, then returned to the public domain by Congress in 1868. The area covers about 47 thousand acres in what is now California.
Written from the records linked here; open any of them for its sources.
Shapes come from C. C. Royce’s 1899 maps as georeferenced by the US Forest Service. They are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land. Royce recorded land the United States treated as ceded; the shape does not show a nation’s territory.
Who is doing the work
Land return and Native-led work nearby
- InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council Nation government Land conservation and return of coastal Sinkyone lands to tribal stewardship (nearly 5,000 acres protected) Give on their site Website
- Koy'o Land Conservancy (Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe) Nation government Restoring traditional homelands to tribal members Website
- Kumeyaay Diegueno Land Conservancy (KDLC) Nation government Acquiring and preserving sacred and culturally sensitive lands in Kumeyaay aboriginal territory Give on their site Website
- Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria Nation government 450 acres (2026), first ancestral land return in the Big Chico Creek watershed
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Connections
Located in 1
Sources
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1856-05-22primary record
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1868-07-27primary record
- Royce’s map sheet: California 2 (Library of Congress)primary record
- USDA Forest Service, Tribal Lands Ceded to the United States (digitized Royce maps)reference work
The record’s fields
- Area number in the 1899 record
- 522
- Dates in the 1899 record
- 1856-05-22; 1868-07-27
- Kind of instrument
- Act of Congress
- Peoples as named in the 1899 record
- Mendocino Indian Reservation
- States
- CA
- Counties
- Mendocino
- Map sheets in the 1899 record
- California 2
- Geometry
- Approximate shape from Royce’s 1899 maps
Research notes
geometry_role is 'cession' for every USFS feature: no field in the source distinguishes cessions from reservations.
- Kind
- Land area
- Confidence
- Medium