Patwin tribes sue to halt Vallejo casino project

VALLEJO – Two Patwin tribes filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to block a major casino development in Vallejo by the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians.

The Patwin tribes, Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation and the Kletsel Dehe Nation of the Cortina Rancheria, argue that the Bureau of Indian Affairs improperly approved the transfer of land to the Scotts Valley tribe. They say that the proposed casino will be built near the sites of multiple Patwin villages in the heart of their ancestral homeland. 

The project is slated to be built on a 160-acre site at the northeast quadrant of the Highway 80 and Route 37 interchange and includes an eight-story casino to be open 24 hours a day, restaurants, bars, a ballroom for events, tribal housing and an administration building. 

The Patwin tribes’ lawsuit alleges inaccuracies in the Pomo tribe’s historical account of their lineage traced through an individual named Shuk Augustine. 

The suit also claims that the Bureau of Indian Affairs violated the law by failing to allow the Patwin tribes to rebut the historical claims of the Pomo tribe and did not consult the recognized local tribes at various stages of the approval process and in drafting the environment assessment of the project.  

“It is heartbreaking that the Biden Administration chose to spend its final days approving a mega-project on our sacred Patwin homelands without ever consulting our Tribe,” Yocha Dehe Chairman Anthony Roberts said. “This has left us no choice but to pursue legal action to protect our people, our homelands, and our rights.”

In a statement released Tuesday, Chairman Shawn Davis of the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians said, “These anti-competitive lawsuits were completely expected, and it doesn’t change our approach and commitment to the project. We are moving forward in collaboration with the local community just as we have been.”

The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation operates the Cache Creek Casino in Brooks California, approximately 60 road miles north of Scotts Valley Pomo’s project site. The tribe is active in Vallejo and throughout Solano County, such as by partnering with the county in creating the First 5 Center in Vallejo which offers information and resources for parents of young children. 

More recently the tribe withdrew plans to build a restaurant and cultural center on Vallejo’s waterfront next to the Ferry building due to additional costs associated with sea level rise. 

The Patwin tribes’ lawsuit follows a lengthy legal battle that stretches back to 2016 when the Scotts Valley tribe submitted an application with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to transfer the property for the casino project to a tribal land trust.

The bureau originally denied the request with the reasoning that the Scotts Valley tribe’s historic reservation land was 75 miles away and the tribe had not provided adequate evidence of a “significant historical connection” to areas in the vicinity of the Vallejo land parcel.

In 2019, the Scotts Valley tribe filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior claiming that the bureau’s decision to reject their application was arbitrary and capricious. 

The Scotts Valley tribe’s evidence of their historical connection to the site included an unratified 1851 treaty in which Pomo ancestors ceded the land to the U.S. government. It also traces the life of the Pomo Chief Augustine, connecting him to baptismal records at Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma, 17 miles from the site and later through census records that showed Augustine residing in locations in Napa and Clear Lake. 

The Patwin tribes’ lawsuit disputes much of this historical account, claiming the connection of Augustine to baptismal records in Sonoma is unverified and that the movements of an individual do not represent a tribal connection to the area.

The Pomo tribe’s account also notes that Salvador Vallejo, the brother of the city’s namesake General Mariano Vallejo, captured Pomo Indians and forced them to work on their ranches, including Rancho Suscol which encompassed the Vallejo project site, according to the application documents.

In her ruling on the 2019 lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson found that the agency's decision to reject the Scotts Valley tribe’s application involved areas of ambiguity and the bureau should have resolved the ambiguities in favor of the tribe, according to a legal doctrine known as the Indian canon.

The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation claimed via an amicus brief that the Indian canon does not apply when the decision would benefit one tribe over another. But Berman Jackson found that the potential damage to the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation from the construction of a casino was too many steps removed from the decision before her. 

Now that the casino project’s environmental assessment is completed and the land fully transferred into trust for the Scotts Valley tribe, the Yocha Dehe will retest this argument, along with several claims that the bureau violated the laws in the process of reaching their final decision.

In a statement, Charlie Wright, Chairman of the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation, said “this is about more than a casino, it’s about protecting the integrity of the land-into-trust process and ensuring decisions are made fairly, lawfully, and based on true historical ties.

 “Our Tribe has always stood firm in defense of our lands and heritage, and this case is no different,” Wright said. “Scotts Valley has no documented cultural connection to Vallejo, and allowing this approval to stand sets an ominous precedent that undermines Tribal sovereignty and weakens the foundation of federal-tribal land policy.”