In July 2025, at the mouth of the Klamath River in Del Norte County, California, three historic victories converged in a powerful celebration that made international headlines: the Yurok Tribe had just completed California’s largest LandBack transfer, reclaiming 47,000 acres of ancestral homeland; the country’s largest dam removal project on the Klamath River allowed the river to flow unobstructed for the first time in over a century; and forty-three Indigenous youth kayakers had just finished the first source-to-sea descent of the Klamath River since the river was freed.<\/p>\n
For tribal activists like Dania Rose Colegrove (Hupa, Yurok & Karuk<\/em>), who has spent her life fighting for tribal sovereignty and her peoples\u2019 rights to their ancestral lands and waters, the moment carried triumph . . . along with complexity.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s a sad thing that we have to buy our own land back.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Dania Rose, a lifelong water protector and land defender, has watched this convergence of victories unfold over countless years of relentless advocacy. Now serving as the Culture Project Coordinator for the Hoopa Valley Tribe, she was among those who celebrated as the youth paddlers completed their historic journey in July. She was awarded the California Indian Heritage Preservation Award in 2024 for her outstanding dedication to her community.<\/p>\n But her perspective on the LandBack deal reflects the bittersweet reality many Indigenous activists face: \u201cI’m happy we got the land back, and I’m sad that we had to pay for it. I mean, it was ours to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n The $56 million land transfer<\/a> through Western Rivers Conservancy<\/a> represents the culmination of a 23-year effort, funded through an multi-faceted strategy, including $3.3 million generated through carbon credit sales<\/a> transferred to the Yurok Tribe for future stewardship. The carbon project covers nearly 15,000 acres and credits the Tribe exclusively for new carbon growth as the forest recovers from industrial logging.<\/p>\n But for activists like Dania Rose, even this victory comes with complicated compromises. The carbon credits are tied to the trees themselves \u2014 their ability to sequester carbon over time. Her concerns reflect the harsh reality of wildfire-prone Northern California:<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve been against carbon credits since I learned about them. It’s kind of a sad thing, in a way. But then the way our world is turned upside down, maybe it is a good thing to have the carbon credits. . . . I can’t believe I’m saying that [it\u2019s] gonna save the trees. Their carbon credit deals are for 100 years, and I’m like, \u2018You guys, that’s gonna burn up, and you guys could end up paying that back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Her concerns are not unfounded \u2014 in a region where wildfires are increasingly prevalent due to climate change and the lack of good fire on the landscape for over 150 years, the trees that generate carbon credits absolutely could<\/em> burn, potentially making those credits worthless and leaving the Tribe financially liable.<\/p>\n The LandBack movement, contrary to its recent visibility in mainstream media, represents centuries of continuous Indigenous resistance to colonial land theft. Settler colonialism has systematically worked to disconnect Indigenous peoples from their lands, yet this disconnection was never complete. For over 160 years, California tribal communities have maintained their relationship to stolen territories through ceremony, story, and sustained activism \u2014understanding that their connection to place is fundamental to both cultural survival and collective healing.<\/p>\n The returned Yurok land is a monumental piece of their territory that includes the Blue Creek area, which holds deep spiritual significance for local tribes. As Dania Rose explains:<\/p>\n \u201cBlue Creek area is the start of the medicine trail. It is a place that all the Yuroks and Karuks mostly use for their High Medicine Rocks. That’s where they go out and pray and make medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n For her family, the land return is deeply personal: \u201cPart of that place is where my great grandmother, my mom’s grandma, is buried, called Stevens Prairie.\u201d This ancestral connection exemplifies what Indigenous peoples understand about land relationships \u2014 they are not merely economic or political, but spiritual and genealogical. The return of Blue Creek isn’t just about conservation; it’s about restoring the fundamental relationships that sustain Indigenous peoples and, by extension, the lands and waters themselves.<\/p>\n Tribally-Led Coalitions and Determination Lead to Dam Removal<\/strong><\/p>\n The dam removal that made the youth descent possible represents another multi-generational victory \u2014 one that required decades of organizing by multiple tribal nations, environmental groups, fishing communities, and countless community members working together across differences to free the river. Four hydroelectric dams that had blocked the river’s natural flow for over a century were removed in 2024, restoring nearly 400 miles of vital habitat for salmon.<\/p>\n Dania Rose remembers the long fight: \u201cThe dam removal [movement], we started that in 2003, I think, and the LandBack [project] started about the same time. It all came together last year, which is pretty awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n Her own activism played a crucial role in pushing reluctant executives from Berkshire Hathaway and PacifiCorp (the utility company that owned and operated the dams) toward dam removal. In a legendary 2020 confrontation, Dania Rose and other members of the Klamath Justice Coalition (KJC)<\/a> blocked the river to prevent the executives from reaching a meeting that excluded Klamath dam removal activists. \u201cWe [KJC] had a big long meeting about it and it’s like, what the f*@# are we gonna do? I go, \u2018Well, let’s come have a meeting with them. Let\u2019s go and block the river off and not let them go up the river.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When the executives’ boats broke down mid-trip, the KJC activists seized the moment. Dania Rose handed the executives a jar of toxic algae-ridden water from behind the Klamath Dams. She recalls, \u201cSo, we made them smell that water. . . . I said, \u2018You know what? There\u2019s only a dozen people here today. I said, But, if I made another phone call, I could have all my relatives here, and this would be the next Standing Rock if you guys don’t pay attention.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The direct action worked. As she learned from a friend later: \u201cThey didn’t even get back to where they were going. They said, \u2018Well, we gotta get this [dam removal] done.\u2019\u201d Five years later, the four-dam removal project is now complete.<\/p>\n