NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — A Lake County tribe’s plans to locate a massive casino project in Vallejo is meeting with resistance from tribes in that area as well as elected officials on the local, state and federal levels.

The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians is proposing to build a $700 million casino complex near I-80 and Highway 37 on a 128-acre site that was meant for open space and contains cultural sites sacred to the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.

On Thursday, a coalition of California tribes and elected officials forcefully denounced the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Department of the Interior for what the group called an “insufficient and inadequate” environmental assessment of Scotts Valley’s casino project.

At a press conference hosted by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation in Sacramento, the group urged BIA to swiftly reject Scotts Valley’s attempt to build the casino off-reservation — 100 miles away from their homelands and on Patwin ancestral territory — highlighting the irreparable harm this project would have, including on cultural resources and environmental habitats.

At the press conference, Yocha Dehe Chairman Anthony Roberts — flanked by tribal members holding signs that said “Listen to tribal voices” and “Respect tribal sovereignty,” said his tribe was facing “one of the most severe challenges in decades.”

Roberts expressed his “extreme disappointment” with the Department of Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs, who he said has ignored, excluded and mistreated his tribe for months as they’ve tried to weigh in on the decision making process.

“This unprecedented, distorted public process, an attempt at a secret land grab, would allow Scotts Valley from Clear Lake, 100 miles away, and its wealthy Las Vegas Casino investors to build a mega casino on our land. This mega casino has no basis in law, policy, or common sense. And the Patwin people and other tribes and officials here today will tell you that this is wrong, not only for the Patwin people, for California tribes, and an Indian country as a whole.” Roberts said

“The proposed development would directly impact numerous culturally sensitive and sacred Patwin sites. These sites carry the weight of history representing Patwin villages and our ancestors who regarded this land as their homeland. The proposed use of the restored lands exception for taking land into trust as part of the Scotts Valley project misuses the regulation's intended purpose and if applied in this manner, threaten the integrity of all tribes’ ancestral lands,” said Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation Chairman Charlie Wright during the press conference.

The Department of the Interior released the environmental assessment over the July 4 holiday weekend, Yocha Dehe tribal officials reported.

As a result, tribes, local governments and other stakeholders had to fight to extend the comment period from 30 to a mere 45 days.

Thursday’s press conference — held at the future California Indian Heritage Center site in Sacramento — took place on the last day of the 45-day comment period.

On July 23, the BIA held a public hearing over Zoom to take public input on the project.

During that hearing, Scotts Valley Tribal Chair Shawn Davis said the project would reverse the tribe’s history of displacement. He said it will include a casino as well as an administrative building to be the nerve center for tribal governance, along with 24 homes.

He said it’s not just a business venture but a cornerstone of self-sufficiency, and that will be a promise to future generations and would preserve cultural heritage. “We were thoughtful and deliberate in choosing this site in Vallejo,” he said.

Jesse Gonzalez, Scotts Valley’s vice chair, said the tribe had to demonstrate to BIA that it has a significant cultural connection to the Vallejo area. He said the tribe’s journey to pursue this project began a decade ago, and has been long and difficult.

However, during that meeting, elected officials from Vallejo, Solano and Yolo counties, other tribes and residents pushed back on the plan.

Then, as on Thursday, they faulted the environmental assessment for failing to take into account multiple issues, which they said included the destruction of Patwin cultural resources. Plans include bulldozing a chert quarry used by the Patwin people and sites where there are human remains.

Opponents said the environmental assessment also doesn’t address mitigation measures for the destruction of critical habitats for multiple endangered species, high-voltage power lines that cross through the proposed site and the impact of the casino on local traffic.

Scotts Valley’s casino project, which opponents said is largely funded by out-of-state donors, would defy the commitment of Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to protect the ability of every Native person to live safe and healthy lives in their homelands by upending lands that are recognized by California’s Native American Heritage Commission as Patwin ancestral territory.

The speakers at Thursday’s event are part of a larger and diverse coalition that is opposing Scotts Valley’s project.

U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, U.S. Representatives John Garamendi (D-CA-08) and Mike Thompson (D-CA-04) oppose this project.

“While I support tribes’ self-determination and economic development, I have and will continue to urge the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to follow precedent and well-established safeguards with respect to tribal gaming. A lack of meaningful engagement with impacted Tribes and other interested parties throughout this process would have lasting negative impacts on our community," Thompson said in a written statement.

As the expedited process continues, the group of speakers collectively asked concerned stakeholders to demand Interior Secretary Haaland establish a fair, transparent, and fact-based review process — while warning that an approval of the project would be felt across the state for years to come.

“We believe this casino would have devastating social, cultural, and environmental impacts to the communities and lands around Vallejo. Potential impacts to cultural resources, endangered species, and sensitive habitats that local tribes preserve. It must be taken seriously,” said Yolo County Supervisor Oscar Villegas at the press conference.

“As Chair of the Solano County Board of Supervisors, I am outraged by the obvious irregularities involving the structure, length and time of the Public Comment Period for the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians Environmental Assessment. While we are very clearly on the record in opposition to the project itself, we are deeply troubled by what appears to be your agency showing favoritism to one recognized tribe over another,” said Mitch Mashburn, chair of the Solano County Board of Supervisors in a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Governor’s representative outlines opposition to Scotts Valley and Koi Nation projects

Last week Gov. Gavin Newsom joined the ranks of those opposing the Scotts Valley project.

In an Aug. 16 to Bryan Newland, assistant secretary of Indian Affairs, Matthew Lee, Gov. Newsom’s senior advisor for tribal negotiations and deputy legal affairs secretary, wrote that, on behalf of the governor, he was urging the U.S. Department of Interior not to move forward with Scotts Valley casino and tribal housing project in Solano County or the Koi Nation of Northern California’s proposed Shiloh Resort and Casino project in Sonoma County.

The Koi Nation, like Scotts Valley, is a Lake County tribe attempting to locate a casino project well out of their accepted historic territory. In the Koi’s case, they are proposing to build a project in Windsor, also claiming historic ties to the area. Like the Scotts Valley project, the Koi’s casino plan has drawn major opposition from other tribes and community members.

While recognizing the importance of taking land into trust for gaming, the letter said, “caution is warranted when considering the potential expansion of gaming to land that is not currently eligible for gaming. This is particularly true in California, where the voters who legalized tribal gaming were promised that such gaming would remain geographically limited.”

Lee wrote that the Koi Nation and Scotts Valley fail to establish sufficient historical connections to the locations outside of Lake County where they want to locate their projects, and fall far outside of the two tribes’ aboriginal homelands, which make them ineligible for a “restored lands” exception in federal law.

The “restored lands” exception of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allows a casino off-reservation if a tribe can prove a historical connection to the land.

Opponents noted that the Department of the Interior has determined on three separate occasions that Scotts Valley lacks the significant historical connection to the Bay Area needed to acquire land eligible for gaming.

“The Windsor parcel does not fall within the Koi Nation’s aboriginal homeland: It lies approximately fifty miles, over winding mountain roads, from the Lake County region” where the Koi Nation has acknowledged that its ancestors had villages and sacred sites along the shores of Clear Lake “since time immemorial,” Lee’s letter explained.

The Scotts Valley project raises similar concerns, the letter said, noting that its aboriginal homeland also is modern-day Lake County, with the Scotts Valley Band lacking the “deep and enduring connection to the relevant territory” necessary under federal rules.

The letter said an 1851 treaty that purported to cede “a vast swath of the North Bay, Sacramento Valley, and Clear Lake regions” — couldn’t be relied upon. “Nineteenth-century treaties were hardly models of respect for tribal sovereignty, and one cannot safely assume that they accurately reflect the boundaries of tribes’ aboriginal homelands.”

Lee continued, “Governor Newsom has deep respect for tribal sovereignty, and he has been proud to restore tribes’ control over lands from which they have been dispossessed. Here, however, he is concerned by the prospect that the Department [of the Interior] might involve the ‘restored lands’ exception to support projects that are focused less on restoring the relevant tribes’ aboriginal homelands, and more on creating new gaming operations in desirable markets.”

The noted Newsom’s concern that the two projects are proceeding in a way that would sidestep the state, ignore the concerns of tribal governments and other local communities, and stretch the restored lands exception beyond its legal limits “while failing to adequately consider whether there might be a better way.

“On behalf of the Governor, I urge the Department not to move forward with these proposed projects,” Lee concluded.

Yocha Dehe’s comments on the environmental assessment will be released on Friday, Aug. 23.

More information on the project is available at www.protecttribalhomelands.com.

Two recent letters Yocha Dehe sent to BIA are also available at https://protecttribalhomelands.com/environmental-assessment/.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.