In California, there is a 523-acre area known as Andersonia West. Tucked away between Sinkyone Wilderness State Park and the Usal Forest in Mendocino County, it houses some of the last ancient redwoods — giant trees that have been growing in the region for as many as 20 million years. For the last 200 years, colonizers have taken those lands away from Native groups and unceremoniously cut them down, upending history and upsetting natural ecosystems. Now, at least on the patch of land in California’s Lost Coast, that ends.
The week, a conservation group called Save the Redwoods League transferred ownership of the forestland over to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a group of 10 Northern California tribal nations. The collective will take ownership over the land, serving as its primary protectors as they seek to preserve the land and its delicate ecosystem. The council have renamed the forest Tc'ih-Léh-Dûñ, a Sinkyone phrase meaning “fish run place.” The change is meant to serve as “an act of cultural empowerment and a celebration of Indigenous resilience,” and to signify that the land is sacred, according to the group.
