Barona Casino - Barona Tribal History

Barona Tribal History

In 1875, the federal government established the Capitan Grande Reservation for the native people living, at that time, in the northern parts of what is today Greater San Diego. About 40 years later, in 1932, the city bought the Capitan Grande Reservation to build a reservoir. In 1932, without a homeland but with money in their pockets, members of that tribe bought the Barona Ranch, the current location of the Barona Indian reservation.

Until the early 1990s, the Barona Tribe struggled economically in the backwoods of San Diego County. In 1994, the tribe, with the consulting guidance of Venture Catalyst, opened the Barona Casino "Big Top." The casino has become the means to a restoration of self-sufficiency, prosperity and renewed hope. Unemployment and welfare dependency have dropped from 70 percent to below five percent on the Barona reservation.

Read more about this topic:  Barona Casino

Famous quotes containing the words tribal and/or history:

    In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.
    —For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.
    Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)