Federal Lawsuit Filed Challenging Validity of Nor Cal Ione Band of Miwok Indians

The Ione Band of Miwok Indians recently started the process of building a casino in Plymouth, California in Amador County. They broke ground after the first of the year, and have been grading the land non-stop.

Roughly 12 miles away, also in Amador County, is the Jackson Rancheria Casino Resort. “The Jackson Rancheria Band of Miwuk Indians opened their first Bingo Hall in 1985,” Jackson Rancheria history reports. “In 1991, with backing from honest investors, Jackson Indian Bingo opened its doors.”

So while the Jackson Rancheria Band of Miwuk Indians have run a thriving casino and resort for 40 years, there appear to be very serious questions on the validity of the Ione Band of Miwok Indians, as a newly filed federal lawsuit states, stemming from federal and state government decisions not authorized under the law.

The Globe met with one of the Plaintiffs in Fall 2024 learning the details of a long time dispute between local land and home owners in this rural county, and the push by the Ione Band of Miwok Indians to acquire land for a reservation and subsequent casino.

As the lawsuit states, “Defendant Bureau of Indian Affairs and Laverdure, based on the Indian trust, unlawfully reached the May 24, 2012 ROD conclusion that the Ione Band was eligible, as a “federally recognized tribe” under federal jurisdiction in 1934, to have the Secretary “acquire 228.04 acres of land into trust for” its benefit under Section 5 of the IRA.”

From the lawsuit:

The Federal and Individual Defendants named in this Complaint focused only on fulfilling the United States’ preferential Indian trust obligation they claim is owed to the Ione Band of Miwok Indians. A series of very questionable and unconstitutional federal actions were taken to “recognize” a so-called “Indian tribe” and then to establish a so-called Indian “reservation” from lands placed into federal “trust,” and thereafter, to allow this so-called “Indian tribe” on its alleged trust lands to pass gaming and business leasing ordinances enabling it to build, open and operate a gambling casino.

The federal government continues to unconstitutionally use the Indian trust to violate the structure of the Constitution by claiming the authority, as the successor to King George III and his Proclamation of 1763, to remove approximately 228 acres of California fee lands and convert them into federal territorial public lands by accepting these lands into trust for the Ione Band of Miwok Indians, under the Indian Reorganization Act and the Indian Land Consolidation Act, to enable the Band to construct and operate a casino under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

The lawsuit states that plaintiffs’ rights have been deemed irrelevant and violated:

The Indian Commerce Clause, Art. 1, Sec. 8, Cl. 3, gives no authority to the federal government or Congress to preempt state jurisdiction by claiming to remove physical land from sovereign state jurisdiction by calling it “Indian country” once a State has been created.

These 13 parcels that have unconstitutionally been taken into “trust” status are now being prepared for construction of a casino, immediately adjacent to the City of Plymouth, California, and within sight of Plaintiffs’ and their family members’ homes.

Plaintiffs in this Complaint assert that their rights as United States and California citizens subject to the Constitution have been deemed irrelevant and/or completely ignored by Federal and Individual Defendants resulting in actual racial discrimination so that the federal government may claim the extra-constitutional authority of the Indian trust relationship by maintaining the “Indians” in this “trust” status as “wards” of the Nation.

Notably:

Each one of the Individual Plaintiffs lives within sight of the 12 land parcels that are claimed to have been taken into federal “trust” status that removes these lands as “Indian country” from all local planning, zoning and enforcement of any local municipal ordinances. One Individual Plaintiff owns real property directly adjacent to several of the federally owned parcels. Each one of these Individual Plaintiffs must drive by these land parcels to access their grocery store. This proposed tribal casino project has adversely affected their property values and threatens to destroy the use and quiet enjoyment of their individual properties.

This is a rural area is mostly agriculture, ranch lands, grazing lands, winery acreage, private homes in Plymouth, including a 100-home development off of Highway 49.

Some background:

On November 19, 1992, former Chief Judge Emeritus, Lawrence A. Karlton, of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, in Ione Band of Miwok Indians v. Burris, No. CIV. S-90-993, reaffirmed that the Ione Band of Miwok Indians had “failed to establish that they are ‘duly recognized’ as an Indian tribe ‘by the Secretary of the Interior.’”

Former Judge Karlton ruled that, despite their “lack of formal recognition” as an Indian tribe, the Ione Band had a “right to maintain a claim” that their land rights fall under the Indian Nonintercourse Act (25 U.S.C. § 177) and applicable caselaw.” (emphasis added).

Employing the Indian canons of construction, former Judge Karlton also ruled that the Ione Band’s “complaint suffice[d] to provide a basis to infer the existence of a trust relationship between the United States and the Ione Band of Miwok Indians…which has never been abandoned” at the same time, finding that the Ione Band was not formally recognized. (emphasis added). (Ex. 1). No appeal or formal application for recognition was filed.

Since November 2, 1994, the Ione Band “has been on every tribal list published pursuant to the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act” (“FRITLA”), despite its never having satisfied any of the requirements set forth in 25 U.S.C. § 5130 note (3) or the part 83 regulations.

In an August 31, 1995 amicus curiae brief filed by DOI’s former Solicitor, Scott Keep in Ione Band of Miwok Indians v. Burris, No. CIV. S-90-993, “in response to four issues raised by the court,” the DOI stated that “[w]e can not say at this time that the land…on which the Ione Band of Miwok Indians reside…is ‘Indian country.’ The land is neither a reservation nor an allotment, but may be a dependent Indian community despite the fact that it may lack a restriction on alienation.”

On April 4, 2024, Plaintiffs and Amador County were informed in a newspaper article that another parcel of fee land “not contiguous to lands held in trust for the Ione Band” had been taken into trust for the Ione Band on March 21, 2024. No prior notice of a fee-to-trust application for this parcel from the Ione Band was ever received by Amador County or the City of Plymouth in complete violation of federal regulations. According to the newspaper article, Notice for this parcel was filed in Fresno County, because “[t]he subject property is identified in Fresno County records as Assessor’s Parcel Number 010-160-010-000, containing .88 acres.”

The reason for this very blunt provision of the 1866 Civil Rights Act was to prevent exactly what has happened here–to prevent Federal and Individual Defendants from being able to create different statuses of citizens of the United States.

Allowing the Secretary of the Interior to arbitrarily recognize the Ione Band as an Indian tribe without following any law unconstitutionally creates a separate federally entitled class of citizens that are privileged to remove all state and local jurisdictional compliance in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 as enforced through 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Another notable issue is “the actions of the Sacramento Regional Office of the BIA are and were under Amy Dutschke’s direct control,” who is attached to the tribe.