Monterey County Weekly: “Big Sur land returns to Esselen Tribe after 250 years”

The Esselen tribe is getting nearly two square miles of its ancestral lands in the heart of Big Sur back with the closing of a complicated real estate deal that has been in the works for more than a year.

Ownership of a 1,199-acre undeveloped private property long known as the Adler Ranch is being transferred to the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County, a newly founded nonprofit dedicated to preserving tribal heritage.

“We are back after a 250-year absence—because in 1770 our people were taken to the missions,” says Tom Little Bear Nason, who heads the Esselen Tribe. “Now we are back home. We plan on keeping this land forever."

Read the full article on Monterey County Weekly