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A 51-acre piece of land along the Pacific Crest Trail above Santa Clarita is going back to descendants of the people who once lived there. The couple who owned it marketed the plot as a potential glamping site, but they decided to sell it instead to the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians.
The tribe traces its history to villages throughout the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. On Wednesday, tribal members reconnected with the plants, birds and bugs among the chaparral of the San Gabriel foothills. Government officials and neighbors celebrated with them. It was the tribe’s second land return, made possible with state funding, after spending more than a century without a single acre to their name.
“We’ve been known as a landless tribe. Living in your apartment or house, you could have a small garden,” said Jesus Alvarez, board president of the tribe’s conservancy and a tribal citizen. Now, he imagines days in the not-too-distant future where 5-year-olds learn by roaming these hills, not just listening to stories.
“It’s going to be really special to see kids just do that,” he said. “‘You have a stomachache? Make tea out of this.’ That’s going to be normal.”
Julia Samaniego, a tribal citizen and ethnobotanist, walked among plants she considers relatives. A wispy sagebrush offered up its scent as a natural cologne. Bushes of chamise, with bulbous needle-like leaves, could use a visit from their good friend, fire, she mused. A California fuchsia, with bright scarlet flowers, heals the soil and entices hummingbirds. A yucca holds the earth with its roots to keep the trail level. And so much native chia — the kind you can’t find in grocery stores.
Samaniego threw her hands up, elated.
“I want to cook for you guys!” she said. “I’ve been to so many places in L.A. County. I have never seen this much chia. I could almost cry.”
The centerpiece of the land announces itself before you arrive. Driving up along the Santa Clara river, past invasive mustard grass, three giant tan rocks of glommed-together pebbles and stones tower above the rugged hills. Owls and bees take refuge in little caves there.
This is Páhi Yëëyt Tëtá — three large rocks — also known as Three Sisters Rock.
California Proposition 45, aimed at streamlining the state’s environmental review process for “essential” projects, would bar tribes that are not recognized by the federal government from consulting in reviews, while maintaining the right for tribes with recognition.
The Fernandeño Tataviam Tribe has worked long and hard to regain land. Without federal recognition, it cannot have a reservation. As settlers — first Spanish missionaries and later Californians — spread out more and more, the tribe was rendered landless by 1900.
In 2018, it set up the nonprofit Tataviam Land Conservancy to acquire land — a typical strategy for tribes without federal recognition. It created a tribal conservation corps four years later to give hands-on training for native youth and young adults in ecology, climate resilience and human well-being.
In 2023, the tribe signed an agreement with California State Parks to help manage over a dozen state parks in their region. The following January, it announced an environmental offset company had donated more than 500 acres near Elizabeth Lake. When the dusting of snow and ice thawed, 200 tribal citizens joined on the land for the tribe’s annual family reunion. The latest land back was made possible by a $1.9-million grant from the California Natural Resources Agency.
“I remember as a young kid, my mom always was talking about the tribe and the work that is being done — ‘one day and one day and one day,’” said Rosalinda Ortega, a tribal citizen and a field representative for State Assemblymember Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale). “This work represents more than land conservation. It represents our history, our identity, our connection, our ancestors and our responsibility to the future generations.”
For the first time in centuries, a piece of ancestral territory belongs to the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians. While small, the half-acre lot serves as a space for the tribe to hold ceremonies and government business without needing anyone’s permission.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has made land return for California tribes a priority. He formally apologized for the state’s role in a “genocide” against Indigenous people. He appointed the state’s first-ever deputy secretary for tribal affairs at the Natural Resources Agency. Earlier this year, the state set a goal of getting 7% of California’s land — representing the amount of land the U.S. originally promised to set aside as reservations for California tribes — under the stewardship of tribes.
Under Newsom’s administration, the state has invested over $200 million in initiatives to help tribes reacquire land, including the Tribal Nature-Based Solutions program, which funded this return. Together it has brought over 100,000 acres back to tribes, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said at Wednesday’s celebration.
“The folks that actually know best how to manage these lands are the Native American tribes – who have been managing these lands since time immemorial,” he said, with Páhi Yëëyt Tëtá rising behind him. “This is not only the smart thing to do. This is the right thing to do. … It’s key to our future as Californians, whether we’re tribal or not.”
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