Reno, Nev. (KOLO) -In our America 250 segment, we took a closer look at the ancestral land acquired by the Washoe Tribe. About 10,274 acres of land north of Lake Tahoe have been transferred to the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California. Around 20 miles north of Reno, the land was formerly known as the Loyalton Ranch.<\/p>\n
The Wasi-siw Land Trust<\/a> completed the purchase. It was made possible by a $5.5 million grant from the California Wildlife Conservation and private donations.<\/p>\n This represents the largest tribal land return ever completed in the Sierra Nevada and the third largest in California. The land was purchased specifically for long-term conservation.<\/p>\n This land purchase marks a key milestone for the tribe returning what they say is rightfully theirs. The tribe is renaming the land the W\u00e9lmelti\u0241 Preserve<\/a>, which means \u201cnortherners\u201d, a reference to the Washoe people who once lived there.<\/p>\n \u201cW\u00e1\u2219\u0161iw people were first forcefully removed from these lands,\u201d said Washoe Tribal Chairman Serrell Smokey. \u201cSecondly, individual allotments were stolen. Then, we were told we could no longer use the land for resources, or ceremony. Since that time the land has been calling us back, and we are answering that call. This land purchase is good medicine for our people. This is a small start to healing from generations of historical trauma, and the benefits will go on for many generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n The land has seen years of illegal dumping, grazing, and wildfires, and now requires cleanup. With critical wildlife habitats, plus food and water resources, conservation is the priority. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a long education process, and we are aware and are sensitive that we have others that are domiciled in our homelands,\u201d says Wanda Batchelor W\u00e1\u2219\u0161iw Trust Treasurer. \u201cWe just have to work through this. I know some people aren\u2019t happy asking are you guys going to build a casino? No, we are not going to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n The Washoe Tribe hopes partnerships with surrounding communities will be the key to restoring the land, and hopes others will help. <\/p>\n \u201cA lot of it has to do with community outreach, letting the local communities know that we are here in partnership and how do we develop that strategy to become those good partners so we are not a threat, we come in a good way.\u201d says Batchelor. <\/p>\n The tribe is working to create an endowment for the land. About $750,000 is needed, and they are taking donations. If you would like to help, click here<\/a> to donate. To learn more about the land and the plans for it, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n Copyright 2026 KOLO. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reno, Nev. (KOLO) -In our America 250 segment, we took a closer look at the ancestral land acquired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,12659,7,9,8,47505,17825,47503,47504,47506,47502],"class_list":{"0":"post-258075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breaking-news-video","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-headlines","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-live-speeches","14":"tag-live-updates","15":"tag-live-video","16":"tag-press-conference","17":"tag-real-time-coverage","18":"tag-video-updates"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}