The Yurok Tribe is using California’s carbon offset program to buy back its land
The Yurok Tribe has long faced state and federal policies meant to eliminate its land base. Before American colonization and conquest, the tribal territory stretched along what is now the Northern California coast and inland within the Klamath River watershed. The gold rush in the 1840s drew white settlers West, where they killed tens of thousands of Native people through forced displacement, enslavement, and disease. In the 20th century, the Yurok continued to be denied access to their land and water, leading to decades of legal battles over fishing rights.