Twenty-four years ago, California voters approved Proposition 1A, granting federally recognized Native American tribes the exclusive right to operate specific gaming operations, including slot machines and banked card games. This was more than a business opportunity – it marked a turning point for California tribes, creating economic lifelines, job prospects, and funds for essential services like health care and education.
It was also a public acknowledgment of the centuries of brutality and violence inflicted upon California’s tribes, and an attempt to offer some measure of restitution via meaningful opportunity for self-reliance.
For generations, our tribes endured systemic genocide, forced land dispossession and cultural erasure.
