By Patric Hedlund, TME

On January 8, 2021, before a new administration was sworn in, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney approved a plan by the Tejon Indian Tribe to operate a Hard Rock Casino resort 20 miles north of Frazier Park. State approvals still need to be struck. Let’s look behind the curtain at some of the history of this casino.

Buying A Nation

What would it look like if a group of business speculators was able to take over a sovereign nation, substitute their own leaders and change the priorities of that nation?

What if all it took to accomplish that was to eliminate the members of the nation who didn’t agree with the speculators’ plans?

On August 13, 2015 a listing in the Federal Register out of Washington, D.C. started the clock ticking for …(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

The family of Magdalena Olivas has split down the middle

One side wants a casino. The other side doesn’t. Guess which side the Las Vegas investors, lobbyists, lawyers, the BIA director, the Kern County Board of Supervisors and the Trump Administration all flocked toward?

Delia ‘Dee’ Dominguez, chairwoman of the Tinoqui-Chalola Council of the Kitanemuk and Yowlumne Tejon Indians, gave a talk at the Ridge Route Communities Museum on the history of her ancestors on Tejon Ranch. Her cousin wants to build a casino at the base of the Grapevine.

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This is part of the January 29, 2021 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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