Amador County – Two claimed hereditary members of the Buena Vista Band of Me-Wuk Indians are suing the federal government for recognition, and inclusion, to get their Indian rights and benefits. The suit could also impact the recognized tribe’s plans for a casino on Coal Mine Road.

Ya-Nah Geary Mandujano, granddaughter and great niece of the two women, said in an interview Sept. 1 that her father has concerns because the tribe is being called into question in the suit. Mandujano said Buena Vista Rancheria was recognized in 1927. A Census lists her great-, great-grandfather, John Oliver, three of his four kids; and her great-, great-, great-grandfather, Caysus Oliver.

Mandujano said Buena Vista Chairwoman Rhonda Morningstar Pope is the youngest, and the one with the least California Indian blood. Mandujano said she is in “the same generation as Rhonda’s children,” but Pope “got the tribe and voted herself chair.” She said Pope “asked the U.S. government (for recognition), but she did not ask the Miwok people.”

Mandujano is a member of the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians, and part Miwok. She said the biggest opposition for the Buena Vista Rancheria Band was questioning whether or not there is a tribe and Pope’s tie to American Indian nationality.

If Mandujano’s grandmother June Geary and great aunt Bea Ortega Crabtree win, they would get federal recognition, and would not allow a casino on the Buena Vista Rancheria. They would instead pursue off-reservation casino gaming.

Mandujano said: “We are not against casinos, but we are against being kept from our cultural resources” of the Rancheria and cemetery.

She said Buena Vista Rancheria has a compact signed by Gov. Grey Davis for Donna Marie Potts, which in 2004 was transferred to Pope. It was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger “and Rhonda became a gamer.”

Mandujano said: “My tribe’s Rolling Hills Casino opened its doors in 2002.” They have the same Davis compact, but the Buena Vista casino has foundered under lawsuits.

She said her grandmother is in an older generation of the tribe, and took her children there every summer to visit family graves on the Rancheria. Mandujano also tried to get involved, asking to be invited to “sweats” on the Rancheria “and then they stopped having sweats.”

She said “Rhonda sounds stressed out and she takes it out on everybody.” She said “my Grandma and aunt don’t have a gaming backer” and “lived through the assimilation. They are brown,” and it was a lot tougher for American Indian people to go through. She said “sometimes Indians are better workers than they are family members.”

The suit, with co-plaintiffs, Jerry Cassesi’s Friends of Amador County, has a hearing date in November.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.