The Indigenous Peoples’ Journal of Law, Culture & Resistance

California dispossessed Indian tribes of millions of acres in the decades following the State’s founding. Loss of tribal land and waters largely cut off Indian tribes from ancestral territories on which they depend for food, culture and identity. Tribal arguments for rights to these areas outside their reservations have some support in the law, but solutions are better produced in a collaborative process between sovereign Indian tribes and State resource agencies. Recent changes in State policy that seek to remedy historic injustices and respect tribal sovereignty provide opportunities for joint efforts. The authors propose seven options for discussion among Indian tribes and State agencies. The goal is to catalyze a process by which the tribes and agencies may together determine how best to revitalize tribal connections to State lands and waters that formerly belonged to the tribes, but for whom such areas hold cultural and economic significance.