SHINGLE SPRINGS, CA - An El Dorado County man who claims the tribe that built the Red Hawk Casino is a band of imposters has been charged with trying to divert the tribe's mail.

Cesar Caballero, 41, faces three misdemeanor counts of mail obstruction in a complaint filed Wednesday with the U.S. District Court in Sacramento.
According to the complaint, Caballero submitted three change of address forms with the postal service last August to forward mail from a post office box belonging to the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians to Caballero's home address in the town of El Dorado.

Caballero is locked in a bitter dispute with the Shingle Springs Band, claiming he and several hundred other Native American outsiders are the true descendents of the Miwoks who lived in El Dorado County.

Caballero claims the people who built the casino are actually descendents of a homeless band of Indians that lived in the valley along the Sacramento River.
The Shingle Springs Band sued Caballero in federal court in 2008 for trademark infringement after he registered himself in county records as the official historian of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians.

The trademark case is still pending, but has been suspended by mutual agreement of both parties in anticipation of the criminal complaint.
Caballero has been ordered to appear for arraignment on the mail obstruction charges Feb. 28. He faces a fine of up to $5,000 and six months in jail.
by George Warren, GWarren@news10.net