Local interests may have pushed too hard in their attempt to block recognition of an area Indian tribe — a move that may now see Napa County tossed from the suit altogether.

Earlier this week, attorneys representing both the Mishewal Wappo Tribe of Alexander Valley and the United States government asked District Court Judge James Ware to throw out motions filed on behalf of Napa and Sonoma counties requesting that the Wappo’s claim be dismissed.

The Wappo are suing the government and, if successful, could land themselves on the government’s list of federally recognized tribes.

Napa and Sonoma — which entered the case as intervenor-defendants in March 2010 — had previously asked Ware to dismiss the suit, fearing that federal recognition for the Wappo could translate to a new casino sprouting up somewhere in the North Bay.

Their request is panned by both plaintiff and defendant, with the federal government asking that Napa and Sonoma be tossed from the case. The two counties have taken an “unnecessarily contentious stance that seeks to disrupt any further efforts towards a negotiated resolution,” according to U.S. attorneys.
The response goes on to say that the two counties lack legal standing in their attempts to block federal recognition, and that arguments against recognition have encroached upon the purview of the federal government.

“The Counties’ stated goal is to block any such agreement by raising defenses to Plaintiffs’ claims, putatively on behalf of the Federal Defendants,” the response states. “In this case, the Counties seek to interpose a defense on behalf of the United States, which they lack standing to do.”

Wappo chairman Scott Gabaldon said the government’s position comes as welcome news, and was a fair assessment of the counties’ involvement thus far.
“The counties are just way overstepping their boundaries on this,” he said.
Attorneys for the Wappo have also asked that the counties’ motion be dismissed, taking issue with each of the four arguments presented in the counties’ position.
Representatives from the Napa County Counsel’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on the recent filings.

The Mishewal Wappo tribe — which Gabaldon said is made up of 349 members, 226 of which are over age 18 — first sued the government to regain recognition in June 2009.

In their initial complaint, the tribe asked for restoration of federal recognition, which was terminated by the federal government in 1959, and restoration of historic lands. The complaint has since been amended to request only lands that are under federal jurisdiction, as opposed to all ancestral lands.

Nine months after the case began, Napa, Lake and Sonoma counties entered the suit as intervenor-defendants, hoping to protect their own interests and citing future casino activity as a primary concern.

At that time, neither the Wappo nor the federal government opposed the counties joining the suit, a move Gabaldon said was meant to encourage cooperation between interested parties during settlement talks.

Napa and Sonoma have been unwilling to compromise since joining the suit, Gabaldon said, continuing to ask that the Wappo’s claim be dismissed.
Gabaldon also said that his tribe has announced no plans for a casino — in Napa or elsewhere — and that the issue at hand is solely about tribal recognition.
“We’re just trying to get back what was taken from us,” he said.

Gaining federal recognition, however, would open the door for the Wappo to build a casino and establish the tribe as a sovereign entity, one not subject to local laws and zoning ordinances.

As mediation talks between the tribe and the government continue, Gabaldon said that a settlement deal could be reached soon.

Judge Ware will take up Napa and Sonoma’s request to dismiss the Wappo’s claim later this month, and the counties will likely file a response to the government and tribe’s dismissal motions in coming days.
Either way, the outcome will all but ensure more bad blood between the counties and the Wappo.

“I’ve given them all the material to mend the fences,” Gabaldon said. “They just don’t want to do the work.”