Graton Rancheria to make $3 million payments to Cloverdale Rancheria, Kashia Band

The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria confirmed Tuesday they will make contributions of $3 million each to two other local Pomo branches, Cloverdale Rancheria and the Kashia Band. The payments, part of a 2012 agreement with Sonoma County, immediately became wrapped up in the Graton tribe’s territorial dispute with the Koi Nation, which last week announced plans for a $600 million resort and casino outside of Windsor.

“This offer has been made to the Koi in the past, and the tribe has never received a penny,” a spokesman for tribal leaders told the Press Democrat in a statement. “Koi Nation is pleased they brought this idea to tribal councils through Sonoma County, and perhaps encouraged Graton to fill this promise they’ve been making for years.”

The Koi Nation’s place in the 2012 Intergovernmental Mitigation Agreement isn’t entirely clear. That document states that Graton Rancheria is obligated to fund “federally recognized Non-Gaming Tribes in Sonoma County.” The Koi received federal recognition in 2000, status that was later confirmed in a U.S. District Court decision in 2019. But the Koi were not mentioned in the 2012 agreement with the county.

The contributions promised Tuesday by Graton Rancheria, which also has Coast Miwok members, will begin Nov. 1, the tribe said in a prepared statement.

“Our sister tribes are sovereign nations and they must ultimately decide on the spending of this assistance, but we ask that at least 70% of this funding be distributed to their adult tribal citizens as per capita payments, with the rest to go to health or environmental programs or the like,” Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria Chairman Greg Sarris said in the statement.

A representative of Cloverdale Rancheria said the tribe would not be making a statement on the transaction at this time.

The October, 2012, agreement calls for Graton Rancheria to pay a total of $8 million annually for Native American support services, including $6 million to the two non-gaming tribes and another $2 million to the Sonoma County Indian Health Project — “to the extent available in the Graton Mitigation Fund.”

These figures are separate to other massive disbursements the tribe is required by contract to pay the city of Rohnert Park, and to pay the county for things like regional parks and open spaces, police and fire services, emergency dispatch operations, traffic easements

The county’s best estimate for the revenue stream reaching the agreed-upon threshold is sometime in 2023, Montenegro said. Her reading of the document is that the payments to Cloverdale and Kashia could fall short of $6 million annually if the Graton tribe’s revenue can’t fulfill it.

“What Graton is doing for the non-gaming tribes in Sonoma County is incredibly generous and I’m happy they are in the position to do this,” said Chris Wright, chairman of Dry Creek Rancheria, which generates its own gaming income from River Rock casino in Geyserville and therefore does not benefit from the mitigation agreement.

Last Friday, Sarris and the Graton Rancheria expressed strong opposition to a casino and resort proposed by the Koi Nation, another Pomo band, calling the plan “an egregious attempt at reservation shopping.”

The Koi project calls for a 200-room hotel, six restaurant food service areas, and 2,500 slots and other gaming machines on a 68-acre parcel in the Shiloh neighborhood, just south of Windsor city limits.

Koi tribal leaders again welcomed Sarris and his group to become an economic partner in the development, but made no apologies for its goals.

“The Koi Nation will continue to pursue economic opportunity for our people, just as the Graton Rancheria did for their people, as well as for our shared Sonoma County community,” their statement read Tuesday.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to note that the Koi Nation was granted federal recognition in 2000, well before a 2012 agreement between Sonoma County and the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.