My comprehensive 7300 word-long feature piece on the California Indian Gambling industry is now posted at L.A. Weekly. Please take a look at the whole piece.

I cover the three-way battle now underway to control the expansion of California’s Indian casinos that — in terms of revenue””will surpass Nevada by the end of this decade. Tribes versus tribes with Governor Terminator in the middle.

Humbly, I think you will find many surprises in my reporting. How about that Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians, for example, up above Sacramento? Not so long ago they were living in shacks and trailers.

Today, thanks to a state-of-the-art casino that draws up to 10,000 players per day, the 46 members of the Rumsey tribe are now all millionaires. They are heavily invested in real estate and stocks. The state of California leases space in the tribe’s Sacramento office buildings. The Rumsey are also the largest landlord of government space in the state of Illinois. Did I mention they own their own Ford dealership and are currently building a 300 acre golf course:

[Their holdings also include] a reservation of the sort never seen in any cowboy movie “” an idyllic home for the 26 family units, branching off only three family trees that make up this tribe. That patch of plowed dirt that Chairwoman Paula Lorenzo played on as a child has been replaced by a couple of dozen breathtakingly crafted homes, many of them mansions of 4,000 to 5,000 square feet, with detailed metalwork and custom glass, and sweeping architectural flair, nestled into a country-club setting of curving creeks and arching bridges. Squadrons of shiny Hummers, Caddies, SUVs and chromed-up hogs squat in the driveways. The ultramodern tribal offices, a new fully computer-equipped school, a community center and a performance space occupy center ground.

Not too shabby for a few dozen folks whose ancestors, according to the official tribal history, “dwelled along the waters of Cache Creek in the serene Capay Valley and thrived off the bounty of the land.”
After two centuries of tough times, the official history continues, “the tide is beginning to turn for the members of the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians.”

Tide? More like tidal wave. Today, in California, if you’re a member of one of the tribes that operate a casino, at least on the scale of Cache Creek, well, then, to paraphrase Mel Brooks, it’s good to be an Indian. Very, very good.

Again, take a look at the whole piece. Among other things, I actually sort out for you the confusing duel of gambling-related California ballot propositions on which something like $100 million will be spent by November 2.

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