Due to the influx of non-Native settlers in California beginning in the mid-19th century, many California Indians were displaced from their traditional homelands. Several California tribes signed treaties with the United States in 1851 which promised lands to the tribes; however these treaties were never ratified and many California tribes were left completely landless. In 1901, the United States Congress passed several laws, known as the Homeless Indian Acts. These paved the way for the establishment of
Indian colonies and
rancherías in California, which were purchased lands for area Indians. A ranchería, the Spanish term for Indian village, is a small plot of land reserved for area Native Americans, usually only large enough for residences and gardens.
Bureau of Indian Affairs inspector John J. Terrell tried to secure coastal lands for the Coast Miwok but found the costs prohibitively expensive. He then purchased lands inland for the "homeless and landless Indians of the Marshall, Bodega, Tomales, and Sebastopol areas." Prior to 1921, the hilly and heavily timbered property, consisting of 3 small tracts, was the private property of Joseph and Louisa Corda. This land was put into federal trust; however, it proved inadequate for settlement, due to an inadequate water supply and steep terrain that afforded little space for building houses. The rancheria was located far from available jobs. The Graton Ranchería was terminated by the US in 1958. After termination, Frank Truvido retrained an acre of the former ranchería. He had to sell other land to pay taxes. After Truvido's death, his land and house went to his daughter.
Greg Sarris, chairman of the modern Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, speaking to Congress on May 16, 2000, said: :"In 1958 when they came by and did a census at the height of the harvest season, when no one was around, they found three families and with the Rancheria Termination Act, offered those three families or three designees, the right to buy the land, and, in essence, terminate the rancheria as trust land… (and) without the vote or the consensus of the rest of the members." The
Point Reyes Light quoted Sarris, saying "Congress…dissolved federal recognition of the tribe in 1958 after deciding wrongly that all the Rancheria’s members were dead." ==The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria==