American Indians California

Victoria Duarte pores over old Spanish records in the San Gabriel Mission rectory, tracking bloodlines into prehistory. Hidden in the padres' scrawl are the names of some of the last full-blooded Gabrielino Indians, who lived in Southern California long before Spain subjugated them, took their land and shattered their culture. One is Duarte's ancestor, Prospero, who came to the mission as a child in 1804.

The state board that oversees tax policy has ruled that Indian tribes no longer are required to collect state and local sales taxes on their restaurant sales--inspiring the head of the California Restaurant Assn. to say he may seek relief for restaurants not on reservations.

Amid singing, dancing and sacred rituals, a UC Irvine physician celebrated a labor of love on Saturday: the unveiling of one of the first programs designed to assess the health of urban American Indians in California. Dr. Laura Williams, an assistant professor of family medicine and member of the Juaneno and Gabrieleno tribes, unveiled "Native Voices for Change" at the university's Arboretum in a ceremony attended by tribal elders, administrators and frolicking children.

The top lawyer for the agency that enforces state campaign finance law says he is uncertain whether Indian tribes are subject to regulation of political contributions, even though tribes in recent years have become by far the largest donors to state campaigns. Since becoming heavily involved in state politics in the mid-1990s, tribes have contended that, as sovereign entities, they are not subject to the California Fair Political Practices Act.

The Barona Indian band has become the first tribe in Southern California to test new lottery-style slot machines, designed to meet the terms of both Gov. Pete Wilson's gambling compact with the Pala Indians and Proposition 5. The eight new machines, called Stars and Stripes, are at the eastern San Diego County casino on a 30-day trial basis.

The last time Chemehuevi Indian Gertrude Leivas made full use of her native language was more than a decade ago, at her brother's funeral. "I surprised myself," the soft-spoken Leivas said, recalling her improvised eulogy. "The words came out like a string of beads." Nowadays, Leivas has no one left to speak Chemehuevi with. At 74 years of age, the bespectacled elder is a member of a species as rare as the California condor. According to the U.S.

A California Indian tribe and its Florida partner said Friday that they plan to begin operating a San Diego-based gambling cruise ship later this month, despite failing to win Gov. Gray Davis' approval of special legislation the partnership said it needed to legally launch its floating casino.

Mainstream companies trying to do business with American Indian-owned firms or tribal leaders frequently find it frustrating. But, American Indian business advisers say, companies would have more luck if they observed the proper protocol in dealing with Indian business owners. "Most people don't have any clue as to how to deal with Indian people," said Georgia Peterson, an Oneida Indian who owns San Pedro-based Oneida Information Systems.

Yakima Dixie has spent much of his adult life in and out of jail. He lives month-to-month on a disability check in a 600-square-foot house heated by wood-burning stoves. The nearest store is seven miles away and he doesn't own a car. But Dixie could get an annual $1-million check for up to 20 years if voters in March approve a deal reached earlier this month between the governor and dozens of Indian tribes with gambling operations.

After only six weeks, the partnership between a cruise line and an Indian tribe to provide daily gambling cruises from San Diego to Rosarito in Baja California has gone bust. The 433-foot-long Enchanted Sun has set sail for Asia and a possible sale by its owner, Commodore Holdings Ltd. of Hollywood, Fla. The cruises were meant to provide gamblers with the chance to play games that had been banned at Indian casinos in California: craps, roulette and Las Vegas-style slot machines.

In a case that could threaten California's booming Indian gambling business, attorneys for four Bay Area card clubs urged a federal judge Friday to overturn the ballot measure that granted tribes a monopoly on operating Nevada-style casinos in California. If the card rooms are victorious, the proposition approved by voters last year and compacts signed by Gov.

Pregnant, unmarried and just 20 years old, Inez Houston started the summer worried that a hard, desolate life was all that lay ahead. Jobs are as scarce on this barren Mojave Desert reservation as dilapidated mobile homes and weather-beaten cars are plentiful parked along the web of dirt roads. Unemployment and high school dropout rates top 50%, feeding endemic problems of substance abuse and domestic violence.

Since his first success as a freshman lawmaker fending off new regulations on Indian casinos, Assemblyman Tony Cardenas has been a leading advocate for the Native American legislative agenda. The commitment has paid off handsomely, winning the Sylmar Democrat hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions from American Indian tribes, many of which have battled the state during the last decade for the right to expand gambling operations.

It's just before midnight. Wrinkled old men sit in wrinkled old chairs, drinking beer and telling lies while they await their next hand of Texas hold 'em poker under a harsh bank of fluorescents at the Lake Elsinore Hotel and Casino. Almost predictably, someone has played Billy Joel's "Piano Man" at the bar, and the words--"the regular crowd shuffles in"--float into the card club.

Gambling regulators have canceled today's much-ballyhooed deadline for Native American casinos to install hundreds of lucrative slot machines--a deadline they say never existed but developed out of confusion over California's new casino gambling compact. The decision by the California Gambling Commission, announced in a letter Monday, was eyed warily by Native American leaders who question whether the agency even has the right to control slot machine licenses.

Cabazon tribal police officers have chased drunk drivers only to see them careen off the reservation in defiance. The officers have ticketed midnight dumpers who ditched illegal loads of trash here--20 miles east of Palm Springs--then skipped their court dates with impunity. "We can't chase these criminals off the reservation," said Cabazon Tribal Police Chief Paul Hare. "All we can do is advise other law enforcement agencies [of the crime]. So a lot of people commit these crimes and get away."

With talk of casino resorts and the latest-generation video gambling machines, American Indian reservations up and down the state are queuing up for the continued conversion of California into a gambling state. Leaders of California's fledgling Indian gambling industry are heralding a recent judge's order that the state negotiate new gambling treaties with tribal councils.

Just after midnight, Fina Villicana stepped outside to retrieve her laundry from the clothesline in her backyard. Suddenly, beyond a wind-blown clump of willows, she saw a bright spotlight headed her way and heard the roar of an engine. She ran for cover, hiding under her carport as chemicals rained down around her.

A push by Indian gambling proponents to open casinos in urban areas of California could present a sticky political situation for Gov. Gray Davis. He negotiated a landmark agreement with the state's Indian tribes a little more than a year ago, granting them exclusive rights to operate Nevada-style casinos in California on their reservations. At the same time, the governor has maintained that he does not want to see a major expansion of gambling in the state, particularly in urban areas.

The U.S. Senate on Monday approved a bill to authorize $14 million for the Torres-Martinez Band of Desert Cahuilla Indians to replace tribal land lost when the Salton Sea was created by mistake nearly 100 years ago. Purchase of the land--more than 11,000 acres--will allow the 600-member tribe to open a casino near Interstate 10 in eastern Riverside County. President Clinton has said he will sign the bill, which was adopted on a voice vote, said a spokesman for the bill's author, Rep.