Abstract

Tribal rights, tribal wrongs

In this article, the author focuses on the Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act of 1988, in relation to provide reservation to all Northern California Indians. The Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation was established in 1876 as a multitribe settlement. The Extension was tacked on in 1891, and the two areas were administered as a single reservation with one census roll. All that changed in the 1950s, when the postwar building boom and the laying of paved roads increased the value of the Square's timber. The Bureau of Indian Affairs began to cut and sell the timber, and a number of Indians who had allotments on the Square formed the Hoopa Valley Tribe to press for per capita payments. Ever since Congress passed the Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act in 1988, Hoopa Valley, the largest reservation in California and site of some of the most valuable old-growth Douglas fir in the world, has belonged exclusively to the Hoopa.