The Lytton Band of Pomo Indians is a
federally recognized tribe of
Pomo
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 ...
Native Americans. They were recognized in the late 1980s, as lineal descendants of the two families who lived at the Lytton Rancheria in
Healdsburg, California
Healdsburg is a city located in Sonoma County, in California's Wine Country. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 11,254. Owing to its three most important wine-producing regions (the Russian River, Dry Creek, and Alexander Vall ...
from 1937 to about 1960. The tribe now has around 275 enrolled members. It has a casino in
San Pablo, California
San Pablo (Spanish for "St. Paul") is an enclave city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city of Richmond surrounds nearly the whole city. The population was 29,139 at the 2010 census. The current Mayor is Rita Xavier. C ...
, and has proposed to build housing for tribe members, plus a winery and a hotel, just west of
Windsor, California
Windsor is an incorporated town in Sonoma County, California, United States. The town is 9 miles north of Santa Rosa and 63 miles north of San Francisco. The population was 26,801 as of the 2010 census. Windsor was once home to a waterslide p ...
, in Sonoma County.
History
The tribe was founded in 1937 by Bert Steele, who was one-quarter
Achomawi
Achomawi (also Achumawi, Ajumawi and Ahjumawi), are the northerly nine (out of eleven) bands of the Pit River tribe of Palaihnihan Native Americans who live in what is now northeastern California in the United States. These 5 autonomous ban ...
and part
Nomlaki
The Nomlaki (also Noamlakee, Central Wintu, Nomelaki) are a Wintun people native to the area of the Sacramento Valley, extending westward to the Coast Range in Northern California. Today some Nomlaki people are enrolled in the federally recogni ...
, and his wife, a
Pomo
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 ...
from
Bodega Bay, when they successfully petitioned the
U.S. Office of Indian Affairs for the right to build on a plot north of Healdsburg north of Lytton Station Road after Steele's home was destroyed in a flood. Along with his brother-in-law, John Myers, and his wife, Mary Myers Steele (both
Pomo
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 ...
from
Sonoma), he moved onto the land, which the government had set aside for Native Americans. This land became the Lytton
Rancheria and the namesake for the tribe.
In 1958, in accordance with a policy of
assimilating Native Americans into the rest of American society, Congress terminated the federal trust in the reservations lands of over forty California bands, including the Lytton Rancheria. The Lytton band was dissolved and its land was deeded to its members. As part of the agreement, the government agreed to perform several improvements on the land, such as building roads and installing sewage service, but failed to do so. Within a year, the land-owning Lyttons had all sold, for reasons that are not clear; some current tribe members say that their ancestors did not understand
property tax
A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inhe ...
es and so were forced to sell, while other sources dispute that claim.
In 1991 the Lyttons successfully petitioned the government to restore their tribal status. Though the Lytton Band does not divulge a complete list of members, as of April 5, 2005 there are about 275 members.
Other bands of Pomo include the
Guideville Band of Pomo Indians
The Guideville Band of Pomo Indians is a Native American tribe of the Pomo Indians of northern California.[Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians
The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians of California, also known as the Scott's Valley Band of Pomo Indians of the Sugar Bowl Rancheria is a Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribe of Pomo people, Pomo and Eel River Athapaskans, Wa ...](_blank)
.
Language
Taken from Pomoan languages, see more:
Pomoan languages
The Pomoan, or Pomo , languages are a small family of seven languages indigenous to northern California spoken by the Pomo people, whose ancestors lived in the valley of the Russian River and the Clear Lake basin. Four languages are extinct, an ...
The Pomoan, or Pomo , languages are a small family of
Native Californian languages spoken by 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 ...
who formerly occupied the valley of the
Russian River and the
Clear Lake basin. The Pomoan languages are severely
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...
– with the exception of
Kashaya, which had few dozen speakers in the 1990s, they are spoken by only a handful of elderly people.
Northern Pomo
Northern Pomo is a critically endangered Pomoan language, spoken by the indigenous Pomo people in what is now called California. The speakers of Northern Pomo were traditionally those who lived in the northern and largest area of the Pomoan terr ...
and
Northeastern Pomo
Northeastern Pomo, also known as Salt Pomo, is a Pomoan language of Northern California. There are no living fluent speakers. It was spoken along Stony Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River. Northeastern was one of seven mutually unintellig ...
are without known speakers and presumed to be extinct.
A vast majority of people in the Lytton Rancheria speak
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
.
Government
The Lytton Band of Pomo Indians Tribal Office is located on 1300 N Dutton Ave # A,
Santa Rosa, CA
Santa Rosa ( Spanish for " Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area in California. Its estimated 2019 population was 178,127. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and ...
95401. They are governed by a democratically elected
tribal council, with a working
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princ ...
.
The tribe does not reveal its list of members, nor its constitution, so a majority of administration is unknown to the public. Their current administration is as follows:
*Marjorie Mejia, Tribal Chairperson
Casino in San Pablo
Acquisition
After the community of
American Canyon
American Canyon (previously known as Napa Junction) is a city located in southern Napa County, California, northeast of San Francisco, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. The 2020 census reported the city's population as 21,837. Its ZIP Code ...
rebuffed the Lyttons' attempts to turn an existing cardroom into a casino, the Lyttons set their sights on the city of
San Pablo, home of the
Casino San Pablo (CSP) cardroom. Cardrooms are California gambling establishments where the house has no stake in the games. Customers typically pay a fixed amount to the house per hand, regardless of whether they win or lose.
With the assistance of the city of San Pablo and the
Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union
The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) was a United States labor union representing workers of the hospitality industry, formed in 1890. In 2004, HERE merged with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UN ...
, the Lyttons lobbied local Congressman
George Miller to help turn Casino San Pablo into their reservation. Under the terms of the
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (, ''et seq.'') is a 1988 United States federal law that establishes the jurisdictional framework that governs Indian gaming. There was no federal gaming structure before this act. The stated purposes of the ac ...
, only tribes who acquired land prior to 1988 would be eligible to operate
casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
s on their land.
[Bernice Yeung (June 6, 2001)]
Gambling Their Future
. ''San Francisco Weekly'' Because the Lyttons had regained their tribal status in 1991, and so were ineligible. Miller added a provision to the Omnibus Indian Advancement Act of 2000 that took CSP into federal trust and backdated its acquisition to 1988. When
President Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
signed the bill into law, the Lyttons gained the right to turn the CSP, formerly a low-stakes cardroom, into a full-fledged casino with much more profitable gambling devices and games such as slot machines and
blackjack.
Miller's backdating clause, in a section labeled "technical corrections," has been described as "midnight legislation" and "underhanded". Professor I. Nelson Rose, a gambling law expert from Whittier College, said the bill "bordered on illegal". Others dispute that the language was added inappropriately; a former staffer for U.S. Senator
Daniel Inouye described the process as nothing out of the ordinary, saying, "That's the way the republic works".
Expansion plans
In order to operate so-called
Class III games, such as
slot machine
A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...
s, Native American casinos must negotiate a compact with the state; the Lyttons have revised their casino plans several times in the hopes of procuring such a compact from
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. One element of the plan has been the Lyttons' request that the state grant them a monopoly on gaming within a radius of CSP.
After acquiring CSP, the Lyttons announced plans to expand it from into a , six- to eight-story casino, with up to 5,000 slot machines, which would make it bigger than the
MGM Grand casino in
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...
. U.S. Senator
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she wa ...
(D-CA) expressed opposition in 2003, citing concerns that "off-reservation gambling" would be a strain on local resources, aggravate traffic congestion and increase crime. But on August 19, 2004, Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger announced an agreement to create such a casino, an agreement that required approval by the State Legislature and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
There was immediate local opposition to the agreement, including the California Assemblywoman
Loni Hancock
Loni Hancock (born Ilona Harrington; April 10, 1940) is an American politician and a former member of the California State Senate. A Democrat, she represented the 9th Senate District, which encompasses the northern East Bay.
Hancock has bee ...
, and mayor of the neighboring city of
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
. Facing bipartisan opposition from the
California State Legislature, within a week of the agreement with the governor, the Lyttons revised the proposed figure to 2,500 slots.
In February 2005, San Pablo City Council voted unanimously to urge state legislators to pass the required enabling act, while in the city council in nearby
Albany unanimously voted to oppose that. In April 2005, U.S. Senator
John McCain (R-AZ) attacked the proposed compact. Tribal spokespeople countered that the casino was "the final act in redressing the wrongs", the
reparations
Reparation(s) may refer to:
Christianity
* Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation
* Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin
History
*War reparations
**World War I reparations, made from G ...
for the government's dissolution of their tribe's legal status and reservation lands. In addition, they said the casino would create 6,600 jobs and would provide the city, county, and state governments with 25 percent of gaming revenue.
In August 2005, after failing to get a compact based on the revised plan, the Lyttons added 500 "video
bingo
Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Gaming
* Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers
** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland
** Bi ...
" machines to CSP. As Class II machines, these did not require a state compact. By mid-2006 there were over 800 new gaming devices in use.
In 2007, the tribe reached an agreement with Feinstein: the tribe would no longer try to get approval to build a larger casino, or get Class III slot machines, and Feinstein would drop legislation that would have forced the tribe to go through rigorous federal and state approvals to offer even the existing Class II gaming in their casino.
Operations
Annual proceeds from the casino were estimated to be more than $180 million annually as of 2014.
Under a 1999 Municipal Services Agreement,
the tribe pays the city of San Pablo 7.5 percent of revenues;
in 2014, that was more than $15 million,
a decrease from $22.6 million in 2003.
The amount is tied to the casino's status as a Class II facility. If it became a Class III (Las Vegas-type) facility, the annual payment amount would be much smaller.
The tribe pays nothing to the State of California.
As of 2011, about 200 workers at the casino belonged to a union, Unite Here Local 2850. That year, their average salary was $9.50 per hour. In May 2014, after years of dispute, the union and the tribe reached an agreement that provided for wage increases and minimized the increase in health care costs to be paid by employees.
Charity
The Lytton Band of Pomo Indians supports many charities. Their current sponsorship as follows:
* Schulz Celebrity Golf Classic
* Luther Burbank Center for the Arts
* Windsor Fire Protection District
* The Boys & Girls Club of Central Sonoma County
* PDI Surgery Center in Windsor
Sonoma County lands
In 2002, an investor group that had collaborated with the tribe on the San Pablo casino project purchased 50 acres of land west of
Windsor, California
Windsor is an incorporated town in Sonoma County, California, United States. The town is 9 miles north of Santa Rosa and 63 miles north of San Francisco. The population was 26,801 as of the 2010 census. Windsor was once home to a waterslide p ...
, a town just to the south of Healdsburg. The tribe, which expected to acquire that land from the investor group, said it wanted to build homes, a community center and a ceremonial roundhouse on the land. The Windsor town council responded by going on record as opposing the tribe's plans to develop the land beyond the one home per five acres allowed by the county's general plan.
In April 2009, the tribe applied to the
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to have 100 acres of land - it had purchased more land to the west of Windsor - taken into
federal trust. The tribe said it wanted to build 145 homes and a community center for tribal members on the site. In May, the Windsor town council voted 4-1 to oppose the tribe's plans. Tribal representatives said if they could not get Windsor to extend utility service to the land, they would use well water and build their own sewer plant.
In 2012 and 2013, the tribe purchased more than a dozen properties in Sonoma County, paying more than $47 million. About 2,000 acres were owned by the end of 2013, including more than $22 million of vineyards and pasture in the Alexander and Russian River Valleys, 650 acres near the Sonoma Coast, and about 400 acres in the Windsor area.
In March 2015, the Sonoma County supervisors approved an agreement with the tribe that prohibits the tribe from developing a casino, but allows development of a 200,000-case winery and a 200-room resort. Under the 22-year agreement, the tribe would pay the county $6.1 million for one-time impacts, and would pay the same property taxes and hotel-bed taxes that would be required if the lands were not in federal trust. A representative for the tribe said that future plans could also involve building 214 houses in addition to the approximately 150 it had proposed in its application to BIA.
In May 2015, Congressman
Jared Huffman
Jared William Huffman (born February 18, 1964) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 2nd congressional district since 2013. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
From 2006 to 2012, Huffman w ...
(D-San Rafael) introduced a bill to take land near Windsor, owned by the tribe, into federal trust for housing and other non-gaming purposes as part of a new Lytton Rancheria reservation for the tribe. Huffman said he proposed to create the Indian lands through an act of Congress instead of through the BIA process because a Congressional act could completely prevent a casino, and could bring more certainty over what could be built and how the impacts would be offset. In July, opponents packed a Windsor town council meeting to request that the council oppose Huffman's bill.
The tribe, which has given millions of dollars to the Windsor school and fire districts to offset the impacts from its planned housing project, is negotiating with the town of Windsor to get water and sewer service. Such an agreement would have to be approved by Windsor voters because the tribal housing project is outside the town’s
urban growth boundary
An urban growth boundary, or UGB, is a regional boundary, set in an attempt to control urban sprawl by, in its simplest form, mandating that the area inside the boundary be used for urban development and the area outside be preserved in its natural ...
.
In exchange, the tribe would build a 30-meter-long pool, which could be used by the
Windsor High School swim team, a second pool for recreational use, restrooms, a changing facility, a community building, and parking, near the High School and the town center.
References
{{reflist, colwidth=30em
Native American tribes in Sonoma County
San Pablo, California
Windsor, California
Pomo tribe