STATEMENT FROM GREG SARRIS, TRIBAL CHAIRMAN, FEDERATED INDIANS OF GRATON RANCHERIA ON THE PROPOSED SHILOH CASINO PROJECT IN WINDSOR, CA

The Koi Nation seeks to establish Trust land in Windsor, CA, with the express purpose of building a casino resort. Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (FIGR) vehemently oppose this action, as the lands in question sit within our federally assigned ancestral homeland. This action threatens to set a dangerous precedent against Tribal sovereignty with implications for tribes in California and nationally.

Detailed anthropological, archeological, and linguistic research, as well as our family oral histories, clearly establish the fact that Koi Pomo Nation with its historic territory in eastern Lake County has no claim in any manner to our territory. In fact, their customs as well as their language were and are totally different from those of the Southern Pomo, our ancestors. Their aboriginal lands, on which their rancheria was established, are fifty-nine (59) miles from the site they claim in Windsor and their historic territory. The Koi claim their ancestors had a history of trading with our ancestors, which may or may not have been true. While all tribes traded with one another, traditional territorial boundaries were – and should be today – strictly respected. Permission for a tribe to cross another tribe’s territory, say if an eastern tribe wanted to make a trek to the ocean, could only happen after the latter tribe gave permission to cross its territory. Not asking permission to cross, disrespecting tribal boundaries, most certainly resulted in war, often in the form of “poisoning” the offenders.

Further, there is no logic that just because one’s ancestors traded with another’s ancestors (from a different tribe), that the descendants can claim that they have a right to settle on the territory of the people they traded with. For example, if you came to my grandmother’s backyard to trade your carrots for my grandmother’s apples, that does not mean you can come and claim my grandmother’s backyard as your own today – which is exactly the claim Koi Nation of eastern Lake County is making.

Their claims of historic connection are flawed and if accepted by the Department of Interior (DOI), would set a dangerous precedent for all California Indians – in fact, for all Indian Nations — not only creating the reality of a casino on every street corner, but, no doubt as a result, also creating a major challenge to what currently constitutes our sovereignty as federally recognized Indian nations.

Koi Nation falsely claims that our Southern Pomo land is part of their aboriginal territory even while currently giving tours of Anderson Marsh in Lake County, describing to people how the Lake County region is their aboriginal home.

The Koi tribe uses post-European contact history as a way to establish “a deep historical connection to the land,” which the Department of Interior (DOI) uses as a requirement for a tribe to take land for its use (i.e. for a casino) into Trust. They claim, for instance, that they have a history of working for General Vallejo, which would have been sometime between 1824 and 1850 (when California became a state). For the record, ever since first contact with the Spanish (before the Mexican revolution and secularization of the missions), California Indian people were forcibly moved into missions both far and near to their aboriginal homelands. We (FIGR), too, worked for General Vallejo. But before that, we have detailed and well documented history of our Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo ancestors forcibly removed from what are today known as Marin and Sonoma Counties into Mission Dolores (in present day San Francisco), and into missions in Santa Clara and San Jose, all of which are in the true aboriginal homelands of Ohlone Nations. Using the Koi claim of working for General Vallejo as a deep significant historical connection to the land, means that almost any Northern California tribe could violate Ohlone Nations rights and disrespectfully apply for Trust status on their lands – and ultimately build casinos from downtown San Francisco to San Jose and all over Oakland and the East Bay.

The DOI has never taken land into Trust for a tribe further than 15 miles from its aboriginal territory, or from where its first U.S. established reservation was located. Once again, Koi is seeking to take land into trust 59 miles from its aboriginal territory. This illegal land grab is not limited to the Koi – the Scotts Valley Pomo, also from Lake County – is seeking to take land into Trust in Vallejo, which is Wintun territory, over 60 miles from Scott’s Valley territory in Lake County. Koi, by the way, attempted to take land into Trust in 2012 next to the Oakland Airport, claiming they had a “deep connection to the land”. Also, once again using the claim that they had worked for General Vallejo.

It is evident that if the 15 mile precedent is broken and tribes can muddle what constitutes a “deep connection to the land”, a new precedent will be set whereby, as a result of our Spanish, Mexican, and early American history, we as California Indian people will be able to make claims just about anywhere to establish Trust land and build casinos on every street corner in the state of California – and everywhere else in this country for that matter. Such a scenario is certainly not what Californians want and will certainly turn public opinion against us and our businesses, which, as history has shown, results in federal laws that can and will challenge our sovereignty.

It is true that the 1910 California Indian Rancheria Act created to provide sovereign homes – rancherias, reservations – for the homeless Indians of California – often bundled aboriginal tribes and villages together, thus sovereign nations from specific locations of survivors were created. Approximately 15.5 acres of land northeast of Sebastopol (Graton) was set aside for the “homeless Indians of Tomales Bay, Bodega Bay, Sebastopol, and the vicinity thereof.” In other words, the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo survivors of the historic genocide, were given land and recognized as a sovereign nation. Yes, we lost the land, as many of the rancherias/nations did, as a result of the 1958 California Rancheria Termination Act. We were illegally terminated, which the federal government acknowledged when President Clinton signed our Restoration Bill on December 27, 2000. We applied to put land into Trust (a new reservation in Rohnert Park), which is approximately 7 miles from our original reservation in Graton – NOT 59 MILES! We stayed both within the territory where our people have a true “deep historic connection to the land,” and within the 15-mile precedent established by the DOI for taking land into Trust for a landless tribe. We followed the rules. Koi and Scott’s Valley must do the same for the good of all American Indian people.

Please join us and make your voice heard on this issue. Here’s how to communicate with the
Bureau of Indian Affairs:
Amy Dutschke, Regional Director

Bureau of Indian Affairs, Pacific Regional Office
2800 Cottage Way, Room W — 2820
Sacramento, CA 95825

Or email to:
Chad Broussard
Environmental Protection Specialist
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Pacific Region
chad.broussard@bia.gov

Please write “EIS Comments, Koi Nation Shiloh Resort and Casino” on the first page of written
comments, or in the subject line of your email.

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