1891. A large number of California Indians remained landless, however. Accordingly,
2,580 public domain allotments were made to California Indians, mostly in parts of the
state that were unsuitable for agriculture. Over the years, these lands, like so many
other allotted lands, have found their way into non–Indian ownership. Fewer than 200
remain in trust.
Yet the Indians who kept hold of these public domain allotments used the land to
maintain cultural ways. If one family in a tribe possessed an allotment, a larger group of
that family's relations would separate from the rest of the tribe and settle there.
Subgroups were established, with their own patterns of leadership and organization.
Some of the California Indians who have retained public domain allotments are not
members of federally recognized tribes. They find it odd and distressing that they can
be the beneficiaries of trust land, as well as identified as Indians according to the
California Indian rolls, yet have no official status as Indians in the eyes of the federal
government. Of course, there can be a difference between recognition of a tribe and
recognition of an individual as being of Indian descent. Yet the existence of the public
domain trust allotment offers some evidence of a federal responsibility and relationship.
It also provides a location for the practice of tribal culture and the gathering of group
members. The fact that the group may have splintered in order to survive on smaller,
more dispersed lands should not matter for purposes of recognition under these
circumstances.
Scott Keep, an attorney in the Office of the Solicitor, Department of Interior, recently told
Anne Marie Sayers of the Indian Canyon Nation, an unrecognized group,
In California there are in excess of 3,000 California Indians who are not
federally recognized who hold in excess of 18,000 acres of land in trust.
The legal opinion in Washington, D.C. is that if you are not a member of a
federally recognized tribe, this government cannot hold land in trust for
you.
Thus, so long as the federal government exerts the control and provides the services
associated with public domain trust allotments, it should carry through on the logical
extension of that relationship –– full provision of federal benefits through recognition.
Provision of Services
California Indians have received some services under federal statutes benefiting Indians
for many decades, regardless of their membership in nonrecognized groups. For
example, the B.I.A.'s Higher Education Grant Program was established in 1949
pursuant to the Snyder Act of 1921, which authorized the Bureau to "direct, supervise
and expend such moneys as Congress may from time to time appropriate, for the
benefit, care, and assistance of the Indians of the United States...for support...including
education." 6 In 1957, the B.I.A. published regulations defining the eligible class of
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