The Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California announced Wednesday that it has completed the purchase of more than 10,000 acres of ancestral land in the Sierra Nevada, marking the largest tribal land return ever completed in the mountain range and the third largest in California.
The tribe acquired 10,274 acres northeast of Lake Tahoe and about 20 miles north of Reno, land formerly known as Loyalton Ranch. The property will now be known as the WélmeltiɁ Preserve and will be held by the tribe’s Waší·šiw Land Trust.
Tribal leaders and conservation partners said the acquisition restores ecologically significant Washoe homelands to tribal ownership and represents a major step toward addressing generations of displacement…