The Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California is a

federally recognized tribe This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

Miwok The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok languages in the Utian family. The word ' ...

Amador County, California Amador County () is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California, in the Sierra Nevada. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 40,474. The county seat is Jackson, California, Jackson. Ama ...

. The Buena Vista Miwok are

Sierra Miwok The Plains and Sierra Miwok were once the largest group of California Indian Miwok people, indigenous to California. Their homeland included regions of the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, and the Sierra Nevada. Geography The Plains and ...

, an

indigenous people of California The indigenous peoples of California (known as Native Californians) are the indigenous inhabitants who have lived or currently live in the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and after the arrival of Europeans. ...

."California Indians and Their Reservations: Miwok."
''San Diego State University Library and Information Access.'' 2011 . Retrieved 28 May 2012.

Government

The tribe conducts business from

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

. The tribe is led by an elected council. The current tribal chairperson is Rhonda Morningstar Pope."Tribal Government."
''Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians.'' Retrieved 29 May 2012. Tribal staff includes Michael D. DeSpain, Chief Operation Officer, and Arnold Samuel, the General Counsel. Tribal enrollment is based in lineal descent from original tribal members; that is, the tribe has no minimum

blood quantum Blood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws in the United States that define Native American status by fractions of Native American ancestry. These laws were enacted by the federal government and state governments as a way to establ ...

requirements. The federal acknowledgment of "Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians," is being challenged by a lawsuit that is currently awaiting scheduling in the

Ninth Circuit Court The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

of appeals in San Francisco in ''"Friends of Amador County, et al. versus Ken Salazar, et al."'' http://www.ledger.news/news/local_news/amador-county-faces-setbacks-in-casino-lawsuits/article_a34f337c-d9ea-11e7-b09e-170965d1e1e7.html https://www.indianz.com/IndianGaming/2016/03/17/judge-backs-bia-in-longrunning.asp

Reservation

The Buena Vista Rancheria is parcel of land, located just outside the census-designated place of

Buena Vista Buena Vista, meaning "good view" in Spanish, may refer to: Places Canada *Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador, with the name being originally derived from “Buena Vista” *Buena Vista, Saskatchewan *Buena Vista, Saskatoon, a neighborhood in ...

. The land once belonged to the Oliver family and was purchased by the federal government to establish an

Indian rancheria Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

in 1927."History."
''Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians.'' Retrieved 29 May 2012.

Casino

Harrah's Northern California is a tribal casino owned by the tribe and located on its reservation.

Caesars Entertainment Caesars Entertainment, Inc., formerly Eldorado Resorts, Inc., is an American hotel and casino entertainment company founded and based in Reno, Nevada that operates more than 50 properties. Eldorado Resorts acquired Caesars Entertainment Corpora ...

manages the casino and licenses the Harrah's name to the tribe. The casino has of gaming space with 20 table games and about 1,000

slot machines 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 as ...

. The tribe won its legal fight against Amador County to allow the development of the casino in 2016. In 2018, the tribe sold $205 million of high-interest

junk bonds In finance, a high-yield bond (non-investment-grade bond, speculative-grade bond, or junk bond) is a bond that is rated below investment grade by credit rating agencies. These bonds have a higher risk of default or other adverse credit events ...

to finance the project, and struck its development agreement with Caesars. The casino opened on 29 April 2019.

History

The rancheria was unilaterally terminated by Congress, along with 42 other rancherias, under the

California Rancheria Act The California Rancheria Termination Acts refer to three acts of Congress and an amendment passed in the 1950s and 1960s as part of the US Indian termination policy. The three Acts, passed in 1956, 1957, and 1958 targeted 41 Rancherias for terminati ...

of 1958. The tribe has been federally recognized since 1985. In 1970, President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

declared the Rancheria Act a failure. The Buena Vista Rancheria tribe joined 16 other native California tribes in a class action lawsuit, '' Hardwick v. United States'' to restore their sovereignty, and in 1987, the tribes won their lawsuit. On 22 December 1983 the Buena Vista Rancheria tribe ratified its constitution.

Notes

References

* Pritzker, Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

External links

Official Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California Miwok Native American tribes in California Federally recognized tribes in the United States Populated places in Amador County, California American Indian reservations in California Amador County, California