California Indian tribe gets back Big Sur ancestral lands

Copyright 2017 DougSteakley/AllRights Reserved

This undated photo provided by the Western Rivers Conservancy shows lupines on the Adler Ranch in Big Sur on the coast of California south of Monterey. A Native American tribe has reclaimed a small part of ancestral lands on California's Big Sur coast that were lost to Spanish colonial settlement nearly 250 years ago. The Mercury News reports the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County closed escrow on 1,199 acres about 5 miles inland from the ocean that was part of a $4.5 million deal involving the state and the Western Rivers Conservancy. It marks the first restoration of any lands to the tribe. The land encompasses old-growth redwoods, oak woodlands, meadows and endangered steelhead trout. (Doug Steakley/Western Rivers Conservancy via AP)