Click here if you are unable to view the photos on a mobile device.
Nearly 250 years ago, when Spanish soldiers built a military outpost in Monterey and Franciscan padres founded the Carmel, Soledad, and San Antonio missions nearby, the Esselen tribe — who had lived in the area for 8,000 years — was decimated.
Brought to the missions to be baptized and converted to Catholicism, Esselen families were broken up. They were were stripped of their culture, their language and their lands by the late 1700s.
On Monday, for the first time, their descendants finally got some of the land back.
In a deal rich with historic significance, the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County closed escrow to purchase 1,199 acres in Big Sur as part of a $4.5 million acquisition involving the state and an Oregon-based environmental group.
The purchase secures a property for the tribe slightly larger than San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Located along Palo Colorado Road on the north side of the Little Sur River about 20 miles south of Monterey and 5 miles inland from the ocean, the land features endangered steelhead trout, old-growth redwoods, oak woodlands and meadows along scenic ridge tops.
Most important, it represents the first time that the Esselen Tribe has regained any of its former territory more than 200 years after Spanish missionaries upended the tribe’s society, causing 90% of the roughly 1,000 Esselen people by the early 1800s to die of disease and other causes. Simply put, the Esselens are landless no more.
“It is beyond words for us, the highest honor,” said Tom Little Bear Nason, chairman of the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County. “The land is the most important thing to us. It is our homeland, the creation story of our lives. We are so elated and grateful.”
Tribal leaders say they plan to use the land to reinvigorate tribal culture, conduct traditional ceremonies and teach the public about their culture and history. They will build a sweat lodge and traditional village, but do not plan to build permanent homes or businesses on the property, Nason said.
“We’re the original stewards of the land. Now we’re returned.” he said. “We are going to conserve it and pass it on to our children and grandchildren and beyond.”
The property had been owned since the 1950s by Axel Adler, a Swedish immigrant, and known as Rancho Aguila. After Adler died in 2004, his family later put it up for sale for $15 million. Following years of negotiations, the Western Rivers Conservancy, an environmental group based in Portland, struck a deal to buy the land and transfer it to the U.S. Forest Service.
But some Big Sur residents objected. Following several devastating wildfires in the area, they were concerned about increased public visitation and the Forest Service’s lack of funding to take care of the property.
Fire season: Which parts of California face the highest risk this summer?
The conservancy worked next with the Esselen tribe, and applied to the California Natural Resources Agency for a grant. The agency awarded $4.5 million for the deal to cover the $4.35 million purchase price, along with studies of the property. The money came from Proposition 68, a $4 billion state parks and water bond approved by California voters in 2018. The measure included $60 million for competitive grants to acquire Native American natural, cultural and historic resources in California.
“The Little Sur River is a big deal for steelhead, and the property is a big deal for condor reintroduction and redwoods,” said Sue Doroff, president of the Western Rivers Conservancy. “The property is spectacular, and on top of that it repatriates land to a tribe that has had a really hard go of it over the years. To be a part of helping a tribe regain its homeland is great.”
When the land was first put up for sale, real estate brokers said it had five buildable lots, and could have been carved up.
Now the land, which overlooks the Los Padres National Forest, will remain undeveloped forever. Nason said the tribe, which today has 214 members, will share it with other Central Coast tribes like the Ohlone, the Amah Mutsun and the Rumsen people who also were decimated during the Mission Era.
“Getting this land back gives privacy to do our ceremonies,” he said. “It gives us space and the ability to continue our culture without further interruption. This is forever, and in perpetuity, that we can hold on to our culture and our values.”
Lake Tahoe: $14 million deal to preserve wild lands, forests, remote lake near Truckee
Correction: July 27, 2020. An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the Esselen were driven off their land beginning 350 years ago. It was 250 years ago.
