TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

SACRAMENTO -- When President Barack Obama addresses Indian leaders, he waxes about the need for education and health care, and an honest government-to-government relationship. He doesn't mentions casinos.

"You have an administration that understands the challenges that you face, and most importantly you have a president that's got your back," he was quoted as telling tribal leaders last month in Washington.

Kathy Montes Morgan and 210 other members of the Tejon Indian Tribe of Kern County became the latest beneficiaries of Obama's overtures. The administration restored their status as a tribe on Tuesday, and rightly so. The tribe lost its land and status because of corruption and incompetence.

"It opens up doors to help me provide health services for my people," Morgan, the Tejon chairwoman, told me Wednesday.

As the Tejon Indians begin to reclaim some of what was taken, Las Vegas casino owner William C. Wortman also could gain, if, as is likely, Tejon opens a casino, like nearly 60 other California tribes.

Wortman is founder of Cannery Casino Resorts, which owns several casinos in Nevada, and helped bankroll Tejon's seven-year battle to regain its status.

Morgan, who manages the tribe's affairs from her home in Wasco, said she burst into tears when she learned that Larry Echo Hawk, Obama's head of Indian affairs, found that because of "an administrative error," the Bureau of Indian Affairs had omitted the Tejon tribe from its list of federally recognized tribes.

"Upon review of the facts and history of this matter," Echo Hawk told the tribe in a letter, "I hereby reaffirm the federal relationship between the United States and the Tejon Indian Tribe, thus concluding the long and unfortunate omission of the Tejon Indian Tribe from the list of federally recognized tribes."

Arlinda F. Locklear is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who specializes in helping tribes regain recognition and presented Tejon's case to the Interior Department. She called Tejon's saga "one of the most compelling in Indian country, and I've seen a lot."

The ancestral land now is known as Tejon Ranch, 270,000 acres 60 miles north of Los Angeles. A highly valuable swath straddles the Grapevine on Interstate 5. The owner, Tejon Ranch Company, is developing parts of the land for housing and other developments.

In the 19th century, Locklear said, a "double-dealing" federal agent bought the tribe's land. And in 1912, Harry Chandler, who owned the Los Angeles Times in the first half of the 20th century and whose real estate and water deals transformed Los Angeles, bought what had been the tribe's territory.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs pleaded with the Chandler family to sell back part of it to restore a reservation, only to be rebuffed.

"That was one tough family, let me tell you," Locklear said.

It got worse in 1962. After a century-long relationship, the Bureau of Indian Affairs simply left the tribe off its list of recognized tribes. Tejon members had no clue about the omission. It took 50 years to remedy.

"This decision in and of itself shows that the Obama administration has a finer eye to do justice," Locklear said.

Obama doesn't mention casinos when he talks about Indians. But in recent months, the administration has made several decisions that help Indian gambling interests.

In September, Echo Hawk approved two casinos far from tribes' reservations. One would be near the Sleep Train Amphitheatre in Yuba County. Another would be off Highway 99 in Madera.

In June, the administration sided with the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians in San Diego County, urging that the U.S. Supreme Court let stand an appellate court ruling barring the state from collecting anything resembling taxes in exchange for allowing tribes to operate slot machines.

Morgan wouldn't discuss casino plans, except to say that economic development is a right. She also would not say whether Wortman is a financial backer, and he didn't return my phone call. However, in 2008, one of Tejon's Washington lobby firms filed a statement in which it named Wortman as helping pay the lobbying costs.

Gambling and politics often mix. Wortman donates to Republicans, including Obama's 2008 opponent, John McCain. Still, Obama is smart to support tribes. Casino tribes regularly spend six- and seven-figure sums on campaigns.

Clearly, the administration's decision will help Tejon Indians. Tribe members will be eligible for housing, health and educational aid. In time, the tribe will be able to open a casino. When that occurs, the Tejon tribe will have many people to thank. Obama should be at the top of the list, whether he talks about casinos or not.

Dan Morain is a senior editor at the Sacramento Bee and a member of the newspaper's editorial board.