SACRAMENTO – In a significant recognition of tribal sovereignty, Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has approved gaming procedures for the five plaintiff tribes in Chicken Ranch Rancheria v. California that do not create a regulatory role for the State of California.
SACRAMENTO – In a significant recognition of tribal sovereignty, Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has approved gaming procedures for the five plaintiff tribes in Chicken Ranch Rancheria v. California that do not create a regulatory role for the State of California.
In a victory for five California gaming tribes, a federal district court ruled on March 31, 2021, in favor of five Indian tribes who argued that the State of California negotiated gaming compacts in bad faith. Negotiations between the State of California and many of the 74 gaming tribes began in 2014. In 2019, the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, Blue Lake Rancheria, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, and Robinson Rancheria sued the state over the stateâs insistence that the tribes include provisions in their new compacts that were improper under federal law.
âThe Tribe had a compact with the state that had worked since 1999, so the Tribe was hopeful that a new compact would be negotiated fairly quickly,â said Lloyd Mathiesen, Chairman of Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians. âWe tried, but after five years of negotiations it was painfully clear that the state wanted more from the Tribe than it had a right to ask for. The state