“It’s a way to get our way of life back.” The casinos are that next buffalo for us. “So when you look at what we’re celebrating today, the casinos are like what the buffalo meant to the Lakota, the Plains people: It’s a way of life, a way to sustain life. “When you talk about that fight that the elders led, the basic things that our elders wanted for the people was housing, health care and education,” Tarango said. Its people were self-governing until 1959, when its federal recognition as a sovereign tribe was taken away - along with the obligations of the federal government to the tribe - launching a grinding, 50-year battle to regain that status. The Wilton Rancheria were first classified by the federal government in the 1920s as “homeless, vagrant Indians,” he said. ‘A way to get our way of life back’īut the first anniversary of Sky River, its name an homage to the Wilton Rancheria’s ancestral home along the nearby Cosumnes River, is also a milestone for a tribe that has trod a rocky path to federal recognition and self-sufficiency, Tarango said. “It’s those things that really highlight the commitment of tribes and putting back into the community - the fire department, police department, schools,” Tarango said. The first annual round of payments to Elk Grove - $4 million to start, but increasing over time through mutual agreement - flowed into Elk Grove coffers this year. The Wilton Rancheria has pledged to invest $130 million to Elk Grove and Sacramento County over the next 20 years toward roads, public safety and other services including a Cosumnes Fire Department fire station slated to open in 2024 on nearby Poppy Ridge Drive. Sky River did not supply attendance figures, but its tables, games, promotions and events paid out more than $250 million in its first year of operation, casino officials said. Sky River has established itself in a crowded gaming market including mainstays Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln Red Hawk Resort and Casino in Shingle Springs and relative newcomer Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sacramento at Fire Mountain in Wheatland. 15 of last year, now employs some 1,600 workers with hundreds of others anticipated to join the rolls once the casino expands.

The Wilton Rancheria and partners Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming broke ground on the $400 million, 100,000-square-foot casino complex in March 2021. “It’s a way to get our way of life back,” Tarango said Thursday in an interview with The Sacramento Bee. Tarango looked on with pride at what’s been built and his Wilton Rancheria tribe’s long journey to get to this point.

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