By STEVE HART
    THE PRESS DEMOCRAT July 2, 2001

 Sonoma County's Lytton Rancheria is a fading memory. Most of the Pomo Indians who lived there have passed away, said tribal chairwoman Margie Mejia.
 But the tribe is pinning its hopes on plans for a new Lytton Pomo community, a legacy they hope to leave their descendants, she said.
 The federal government established the original Lytton reservation in 1926 on farmland just north of Healdsburg off Lytton Station Road in Alexander Valley. It was one of seven small reservations, or "rancherias," set aside for landless Indians in Sonoma County.
 Most Indians worked on nearby ranches. By the 1950s, however, many had moved off the reservations to find better jobs and living conditions.
 In the late 1950s, Congress decided to eliminate the small reservations. Under the 1958 Termination Act, the federal government divided the reservation land into personal allotments for Indian families living there.

 In exchange for their giving up their tribal status, the government promised residents they'd improve roads, housing, water supplies and sanitation on the former reservations.

 According to U.S. records, 33 people were living on the 50-acre Lytton Rancheria in 1961. Lytton accepted the program and was terminated that year, along with three other Sonoma County tribes.

 Termination turned out to be a disaster for Lytton and other tribes. Federal authorities failed to improve the former reservations as they'd promised. Most of the Indian land was sold off, often to pay taxes or for other debts. Without tribal membership, Indians lost federal health, education and housing benefits.
 The disbanded tribes later sued in federal court, charging the government had ignored its obligations. In a 1991 settlement with the Interior Department, Lytton regained its tribal status. By that time, however, all of the tribe's former reservation had been sold to non-Indian owners.
 Since 1991, the tribe has been looking for land to reestablish the reservation and open a casino. But terms of the settlement bar the Lytton Pomos from building a casino anywhere in Alexander Valley. Sonoma County, worried about the impacts of a gambling complex in the agricultural area, threatened to block the agreement unless it contained such a provision.
 The terms also prohibit the tribe from having a reservation on its original Alexander Valley land.

 So Lytton members are hopeful about a Philadelphia developer's plan to build the tribe a casino at the site of an existing card club in the East Bay. The deal provides that the developer would purchase Windsor River Road acreage for the tribe's new reservation, in exchange for partnership in the casino.

 Mejia is the great-granddaughter of Bert Steele, a Pomo Indian who was one of the rancheria's first residents. The tribe's present-day members are all descendants of Pomos who were enrolled in the tribe in 1961.

 Mejia said the tribe never intends to have a casino in Sonoma County, only a place to call home.
 

 You can reach Staff Writer Steve Hart at 521-5212 or e-mail shart@pressclemocrat.com.