Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation regains land bordering Yosemite

What happened

Nearly 900 acres bordered by Yosemite National Park and the Sierra National Forest have been transferred back to tribal ownership, according to a December 2, 2025 press release from Pacific Forest Trust (PFT). The release says the land goes from PFT to the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation, underwritten by a grant from the California Natural Resources Agency's Tribal Nature-Based Solutions Program. High Country News lists it among California land returns the state helped fund.

PFT says it spent two decades preparing the land for return. It acquired the property when development threatened it and restored it after the 2018 Ferguson Fire, removing dangerous snags on almost 500 acres and planting 125,000 native seedlings. The Trust's own article says the transfer was completed in November 2025 and that in 2014 it transferred a portion of the property to the park. The release says the Southern Sierra Miwuk were expelled with the 19th-century increase in settlement and the establishment of Yosemite National Park, and that the property's pines were clear-cut by the Yosemite Lumber Company.

The Nation's leaders say what they plan. Tribal Council Chair Sandra Chapman said the land will be a sanctuary and healing place for the community. Tribal Secretary Tara Fouch-Moore said the Nation will harvest and cultivate traditional foods, fibers and medicines and steward the land with traditional ecological knowledge. The release says the Nation will use cultural fire, native plant cultivation and forest restoration, and that the project will support the Tribe's case for federal recognition, pursued since 1982.

Good to know. The account comes from Pacific Forest Trust, which does not say whether this was a gift or a sale. The Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation is not federally recognized.

Summarized with AI assistance from 5 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error