VALLEJO, CA (September 16, 2025) — Today, leaders from the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, alongside Solano Land Trust and Tuleyome, shared new developments in their ongoing fight against a $700 million land grab in Vallejo, California. The project, proposed by the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians from Lake County—a tribe from over 100 miles away, with no historical connection to Vallejo—would take the ancestral lands of local Patwin tribes, give them to Scotts Valley, permit the construction of a massive $700-million casino, and threaten critical environmental and cultural resources at the project site.
At today’s briefing, speakers provided a comprehensive timeline explaining how an unelected mid-level bureaucrat greenlit the project in January 2025, on his last day at the United States Department of the Interior, in violation of a host of federal laws, policies, and procedures. The January decision came despite broad, bipartisan opposition from local Patwin tribes, other northern California tribal leaders, Vallejo residents, local governments, Governor Newsom, Members of Congress.
The briefing also explained that in March 2025, the Department of the Interior, perhaps recognizing the problems with the January decision, took the unusual step of initiating a formal reconsideration process. The project remains under active legal review, with fast-moving legal developments anticipated in the months ahead.
“The rushed, illegal approval of this project, which handed our sacred lands to a tribe with no historical connection to Vallejo, was unjust and has brought much pain to our people,” said Anthony Roberts, Chairman of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation. “Our position has always been clear — protect Patwin lands and cultural resources and ensure a fair, transparent, fact-based process that allows all voices to be heard. The facts and the law are on our side, and we will never stop fighting to protect our homelands.”
More information on the project, including letters of support from local policymakers, is available at www.protecttribalhomelands.com.