RICHMOND COUNTY, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- The Rappahannock Tribe has reacquired hundreds of acres of land that it considers sacred.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams were both in Virginia on Friday to celebrate.

According to a release, the tribe reacquired 465 acres at Fones Cliffs, which is on the eastern side of the Rappahannock River.

“The Department is honored to join the Rappahannock Tribe in co-stewardship of this portion of their ancestral homeland. We look forward to drawing upon Tribal expertise and Indigenous knowledge in helping manage the area’s wildlife and habitat,” said Haaland. “This historic reacquisition underscores how Tribes, private landowners, and other stakeholders all play a central role in this Administration’s work to ensure our conservation efforts are locally led and support communities’ health and well-being.”

The release says efforts like this help to advance the American the Beautiful initiative as well as ongoing work to support local and Tribal-led efforts to conserve, connect, and restore lands and waters.

Fones Cliffs is located inside the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge and will be owned by the tribe.

The land will be publicly accessible and held in a permanent conservation easement thanks to the family of William Dodge Angle, M.D. and grant funding from Walmart’s Acres for America Program.

The Chesapeake Conservancy bought the land and donated the easement to the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the fee title was donated to the Rappahannock Tribe, which plans to put the land in a trust with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The release says Fones Cliffs is a four-mile stretch of land that is the ancestral home of the tribe and is considered an important area for resident and migratory bald eagles and other bird species.

The national wildlife refuse already has one of the largest nesting populations of bald eagles on the Atlantic coast.

The Rappahannock Tribe is looking to create trails and a replica of a 16th-century village to educate the public about their history and Indigenous approaches to conservation.