Rancho Yokaya privately owned by Sophia Charity Piceno of the Little Lake and Kon kow tribes to current date 2022, (also called "Llokaya") was a

Mexican land grant The Spanish and Mexican governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement for ...

in present day

Mendocino County, California Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish for "of Mendoza) is a county located on the North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,601. The county seat is Ukiah. Mendocino County consists whol ...

given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to Cayetano Juarez. The name Yokaya means "south valley" in the language of the

Pomo people The Pomo are an Indigenous people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small gr ...

. The grant extended along the Russian River from the southern end of Ukiah Valley to the northern end of

Redwood Valley Redwood Valley (formerly Basil) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Mendocino County, California, United States. It is located north of Ukiah, the county seat, at an elevation of , and comprises the northern portion of the Ukiah Valley. It i ...

, from one to two miles wide, and approximating sixteen miles in length, and encompassed present day Ukiah.

History

Spanish then later Mexican influence extended into Mendocino County establishing in southern Mendocino County: Rancho Sanel at Hopland in 1844 and Rancho Yokoya in 1845. Cayetano Juárez (1809 - 1883) was a soldier at Presidio of San Francisco until 1836. Juárez married María de Jesús Higuera (b. 1815), daughter of Francisco Higuera in 1835. In 1836 Juárez was made mayordomo at Sonoma. For his decade of service to the Mexican government, Juárez was granted Rancho Tulucay in present day Napa County, California in 1840. In 1844 he was elected Alcalde of Sonoma. Although often away, Juárez resided on Rancho Tulucay until his death in 1883, and is buried in the Tulocay Cemetery in

Napa, California Napa is the largest city and county seat of Napa County and a principal city of Wine Country in Northern California. Located in the North Bay region of the Bay Area, the city had a population of 77,480 as of the end of 2021. Napa is a major t ...

. Juárez was granted the eight square league Rancho Yokaya in 1845. With the

cession The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty. Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdictio ...

of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...

provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Yokaya was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, but rejected by the Commission in 1854. But on appeal was confirmed by the District Court in 1863, and

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...

in 1864, and the grant was

patented A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

to Cayetano Juárez in 1867. Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886
James H. Burke, came to California in 1853, and in 1857 he and his brother, J. W. Burke, purchased of the Yokaya rancho, extending from Robinson Creek to Burke Hill, about two miles.

References

{{California history Yokaya Ranchos of Mendocino County, California