CAMP VERDE, Ariz. (AP) — U.S. forest managers have finalized a land exchange with the Yavapai-Apache Nation that has been decades in the making and will significantly expand the size of the tribe’s reservation in Arizona’s Verde Valley, tribal leaders announced Tuesday. As part of the arrangement, six parcels of private land acquired over the years by the tribe will be traded to the U.S. Forest Service in exchange for the tribe gaining ownership of 5 square miles (12.95 square kilometers) of national forest land that is part of the tribe’s ancestral homelands. The tribe will host a signing ceremony next week to celebrate the exchange, which was first proposed in 1996. “This is a critical step in our history and vital to the nation’s cultural and economic recovery and…
Register
