- Details
- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Real Estate
The California Wildlife Conservation Board has awarded $5.5 million to the Wášiw-šiw Land Trust to support the purchase of 10,274 acres in the Washoe tribal homelands northeast of Lake Tahoe.
The property, located about 20 miles north of Reno, is surrounded by public lands managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, per a statement from the tribe.
Washoe Tribe Chairman Serrell Smokey said the acquisition is a step toward “bringing Washoe people home.”
“The reclamation of these Washoe homelands is of great importance. Wá·šiw people were once forcefully removed from these lands. This plays a huge part in the trauma our people go through,” Smokey said in the statement. “Now the land is calling the Washoe people home and we are answering that call.”
The property stretches from Long Valley in the east to Sierra Valley in the west. Its landscape includes sagebrush scrub, grasslands, conifer forests, aspen groves and mountain meadows.
Pronghorn, mule deer, mountain lion and gray wolf move through the property between winter habitat in the east and summer habitat in the west. The land supports plants of cultural importance to the Washoe, including pinyon pine, a food source devastated by recent wildfires, according to the tribe.
The Tribal Council of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California formed the Wášiw-šiw Land Trust earlier this year to facilitate the return of land across the Sierra homelands to Washoe ownership and stewardship. The trust is raising $8.6 million to acquire and manage the Loyalton Ranch property, with $6 million designated for purchase and $2.6 million for stewardship. The land will be purchased from the City of Saint Clara.
The Wildlife Conservation Board grant will cover most of the acquisition cost, with the purchase expected to close in January 2026.
The acquisition follows a four-year partnership between the Washoe Tribe, the Northern Sierra Partnership and the Feather River Land Trust. Loyalton Ranch is the first of several planned acquisitions in the northern Washoe homelands.
“Getting the Washoe people back onto the land is healing for the people and for the land,” Smokey said. “The Wá·šiw have managed these lands for thousands of years. Now we can bring those management practices back.”
