California's "Lost" Tribes

THURSDAY Nov. 10, 7:30pm - American Indian Film Festival Palace of Fine Arts 3301 Lyon St @ Bay St. San Francisco, CA 94109 + 415.474.2849 in person: Jed Riffe, Jack Kohler, Maureen Gosling Palace of Fine Arts $7 (Students/ Seniors), $8 (General)

California's "Lost" Tribes Director: Jed Riffe Co-Producer: Jack Kohler Editor: Maureen Gosling Cinematographer: Vicente Franco Narrator: Linda Hunt Running Time: 54:30

In a few short years, American Indians in California went from being the poorest people in the state to among the richest, from being virtually invisible to being the most powerful political lobby in the 6th largest economy in the world. What has been the impact of this dramatic transformation?

For the Cabazon and Morongo tribes of Southern California, the plaintiffs in the landmark Supreme Court case, the potential wealth from gambling was unimaginable. Years of excruciating poverty have not been lost on three-time chairwoman Mary Ann Andreas of the Morongo Tribe, whose reservation is near Palm Springs. She remembers the dirt floor shack of her childhood, and the impossibility of dreaming for the wealth the tribe now holds. For Viejas tribal Chairman Anthony Pico, the abundance of today harks back to the times before contact with the Europeans. Today, the State is trying to charge a gaming tax greater than the standard corporate rate, a challenge to the newly found abundance of California tribes. Concern over gaming is further stoked by the development of casinos on rural lands, such as the Rumsey Band's Cache Creek Casino and Resort in Capay Valley, creating friction between tribes and non-Indians.

Told in their own words, CALIFORNIA'S "LOST" TRIBES is the first documentary to go behind the facade of glitz and glamour of American Indian casinos to reveal the current conflicts over Indian gaming, and to explore the historical underpinnings of tribal sovereignty and the evolution of tribal gaming over the last thirty years. CALIFORNIA'S "LOST" TRIBES captures the impact of gaming on Indian self-determination and the challenges Native people face in defining the identity of their people for the future.

(CALIFORNIA'S "LOST" TRIBES is the opening episode in a four-part series on California, entitled CALIFORNIA AND THE AMERICAN DREAM, which will be broadcast on nationwide PBS next April and May. CALIFORNIA'S "LOST" TRIBES will air on April 13th, 2006.)

Special thanks to Dorinda Moreno for passing this on!

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Last updated on November 04, 2005