After decades of negotiations, a significant land exchange has been finalized between the Yavapai-Apache Nation and the U.S. Forest Service, expanding the tribe's reservation in Arizona's Verde Valley. The exchange involves the transfer of six parcels of tribal land to the Forest Service in return for ownership of 5 square miles of national forest land that holds ancestral significance for the tribe.
The agreement, first proposed in 1996, marks a crucial milestone in the tribe's cultural and economic recovery. Yavapai-Apache Chairwoman Tanya Lewis emphasized the importance of this exchange for the nation's future prosperity.
