A deal is being announced today to return 90,000 acres to the Klamath Tribes of Oregon.

The tribe lost its 2.5 million-acre reservation when it was terminated in 1953. Most of land ended in the hands of the federal government as part of two national forests.

The land being returned, however, comes from Cascade Timberlands, a timber company. The Trust for Public Land brokered an agreement that calls for the tribe to purchase the 90,000 acres using federal funds that will need to be appropriated by Congress.

"It will start healing those wounds (from termination) and start bringing this community and the tribes back together again," council member Jeff Mitchell told The Oregonian.

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Land deal returns slice of Klamath tribal homeland (The Oregonian 12/18)