Remarks by Jessica Tavares to Placer County Supervisors

Remarks by Jessica Tavares, Tribal Chairperson To the Placer County Board of Supervisors

Good afternoon. I am Jessica Tavares, the chairperson for the United Auburn Indian Community, and am joined today by dozens of tribal members. We are attending today's Placer County Board of Supervisors hearing in order to convey our tribal history — including our efforts to regain our reservation, our self-sufficiency, and our sense of identity — and our desire to work with local government when acquiring land in trust.

Let me begin by giving you some historic perspective about California's Indian population. For 4,000 years, Indians have populated the Sacramento Valley. Prior Europeans immigrating west, the Indian population totaled around 200,000 — a number that quickly diminished. In the 1830s, entire villages and tribes were destroyed as the result of a fur trapping expedition to California that introduced various diseases, including small pox, influenza, and measles to the Indian population. The California Gold Rush of the 1850s further devastated the Indians. By 1860, less than 20 percent of the original Indian population remained in the Sacramento area, and less than 5 percent is alive today.

The United Auburn Indian Community began reestablishing itself when the Department of Interior documented the existence of a band of Miwok and Maidu Indians, who occupied a village on the outskirts of Auburn. In 1917, the United States acquired land in trust for the Auburn Band and formally established a reservation, known as the Auburn Rancheria. Our tribal members lived on the reservation as a community despite great adversity.

Following the Rancheria Act in 1953, the United States terminated federal recognition of the Auburn Band. With the exception of a 2.4-acre parcel containing a tribal church and park, the land comprising the Auburn Rancheria was sold to individuals. In 1991, as surviving members of the Auburn Band, we reorganized the tribal government as the United Auburn Indian Community.

Three years later, the United States Congress passed the Auburn Indian Restoration Act, restoring our federal recognition and allowing the United States to acquire "any land located in Placer County" to establish a new reservation for the tribe. In consultation with Placer County officials and community organizations, we selected two new parcels of land in unincorporated areas of Placer County — one for a gaming site and another for a residential site.

I will now introduce Howard Dickstein, counsel to the tribe, who will address the negotiations that have occurred in order to establish a legal and binding contract with Placer County.