California plots return of 7.5 million acres of land and coastal waters to Indigenous tribes

California officials are moving forward with an ambitious effort aimed at addressing a broken promise that dates back about 175 years. The proposal involves transferring stewardship of roughly 7.5 million acres of land and coastal waters to Native American tribes.

That amount represents about seven percent of California’s total area. The figure is not random. It mirrors the amount of land the federal government pledged to Indigenous tribes in the early 1850s. When California entered the Union in 1850, state officials negotiated 18 treaties with tribes that set aside millions of acres to be used as reservations.

Those agreements never took effect. After state leaders pushed back, Congress quietly rejected the treaties without publicly revealing the decision for years. By that time, many tribes had already relocated in reliance on the commitments they believed the government had made.

California now says it wants to address that history.

Under a policy known as the Tribal Stewardship Policy, tribes would be able to regain stewardship over certain lands, work jointly with the state in managing public areas, and return to locations that hold cultural or spiritual significance. The plan also allows the revival of traditional land practices that were prohibited for decades, including controlled burning. Researchers say these intentional fires help reduce the risk of large wildfires by clearing excess vegetation.

State officials argue the initiative serves both ethical and practical goals. Indigenous land management techniques, they say, could play a role in protecting communities and natural environments as the state continues to face intense wildfire seasons and long-term drought.

Currently, more than 1.7 million acres in California are already under some form of tribal stewardship through reservations, cooperative management agreements, and earlier land return efforts. Expanding that total to 7.5 million acres would represent a significant increase, although officials have not announced a specific timeline.

Supporters view the effort as an important step toward correcting historical injustices, but some say it does not go far enough. In many cases, tribes would still face restrictions on how the land can be used, and agreements may require ongoing negotiations with state agencies.

Several other states have taken similar actions in recent years. Governments in New York, Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota have returned land to tribal nations. A federal initiative also transferred nearly three million acres back to tribes before ending in 2022. Even so, California’s proposed plan would be much larger in scale than any of those efforts.