Historical Timeline
1492 - New World Found
1769 - Portolá Expedition to Alta California
1776 – Anza Font Expedition
1776 – José Canizares Expedition
1776 – Mission San Francisco de Asis (aka Mission Dolores) Founded January 29
1795 – First account of tribal ancestors’ resistance to missionization
1797 - Mission San José Founded
1806 – Measles Epidemic
1808 – Gabriel Moraga expedition recorded location of change from Yokuts to Miwok language and names of 12 villages on the Cosumnes River
1811 – Tribal ancestors taken to Mission Dolores Four months later
1812 – Tribal ancestors taken to Mission San José
1813 –Soto, attacked tribal ancestors on a marshy island in the north Delta
1817 – Duran and Arguello exploration of north and south Delta lists locations of numerous ancestral villages
1820s – Hudson’s Bay Company expeditions
1820 – Spanish waged campaign against tribal ancestors to recover stolen horses
1826 – Mexicans attack tribal ancestors living on the lower Cosumnes River
1833 – Malaria epidemic devastated native populations
1834 – Mission secularization begins
1836 – Mission secularization effective, last baptisms at Mission San Jose
1836 – Ancestors of the tribe start returning to their former territories
1839 – Captain John Sutter settled New Helvetia (Sutter’s Fort) in present day Sacramento
1840 – Arroyo Seco Rancho, Mexican land grant to Teodosio Yorba by Governor Alvarado
1840 – Ancestors of the tribe relocated to New Helvetia by Sutter
1843 – Sutter forced ancestors of the tribe to the upper Cosumnes River where they remained until the death of their headman in 1847 and returned to American River
1844 - Omuchumnes land grant January 8 to non-native settler
1844 – Rancho Sanjon de Los Moquelemnes land grant to Anastacio Chaboya in January
1844 – Murphy family settled on the Cosumnes River and employed ancestors of the tribe, with aid of Sutter
1846 – Sutter employed Gatten to make a census of Indians living in the general vicinity of New Helvetia. Some ancestors of the tribe were identified on the upper Cosumnes River
1846 – United States Government began official occupation of California
1847 – December 20 - John Sutter’s report to the Secretary of State based on E.A. Gatten’s 1846 census counted 88 of the tribes’ ancestors
1847 – Sheldon obtained Omochumne land grant and employed some of the tribes’ ancestors as farm laborers
1847 – Sutter burned ancestors’ dance house at New Helvetia.
1848 – California became a part of the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
1848 – John Marshall’s discovery of gold
1850 – An Act for the Government and Protection of Indians - California legislation legalized the indenture of Native People
1850 – Elk Grove founded
1851 – California Governor Peter H. Burnett “A war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct”
1851 – Treaty at Forks of Cosumnes River (Treaty J)
1851 – Senate Passed Land Claims Act
1856 – The State of California paid $0.25 for each Indian scalp (in 1860 the bounty was raised to $5)
1863 – Anderas Pico confirmed grantee of Arroy Seco Rancho as described on 1863 plat by the US Surveyor General
1870 – Ancestors built dance house at Elk Grove
1887 – Dawes Act (aka General Allotment Act or Dawes Severalty Act)
1905-1906 – C.E. Kelsey Census of Landless Indians
1906/1908 - Congress passes the Homeless California Indian Acts for Landless California Indian Bands
1914-1920 - World War I
1924 – April 20, Burning of the Digger, gathering to burn effigy of derogatory term “Digger”
1924 – US Government grants Indians citizenship
1927 – July, the United States of America acquired land in trust for the ancestors of the tribe. A 38.77-acre tract of land in Wilton, Sacramento County, California was purchased from the Cosumnes Company which formally established the Wilton Rancheria
1928 - Passage of the California Indian Jurisdictional Act
1929-1932 Heads of Household and Families enroll with the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the California Indian Jurisdictional Act
1930 – Indians of California vs. the United States brought before Court of Claims
1931 – BIA conducted first census of “Indians on the Wilton Rancheria” counting four families totaling 27 people
1934 – Indian Reorganization Act (aka Wheeler Howard Act)
1940-1946 - World War II
1948 – US government declares intentions to terminate government services to all Indians
1948-1957 - Heads of Household enroll with the BIA during second enrollment period
1953 – Public Law 280 passed bringing all Indian civil and criminal cases under state Jurisdiction
1955 – BIA health services for California Indians ended
1958 – Rancheria Act, authorizing the termination of federal trust responsibilities to 41 California Indian Tribes, including Wilton Rancheria
1959 - Wilton Rancheria Terminated by the federal government
1964 – the Tribe officially lost Federal Recognition
1991 – Surviving members of the Wilton Rancheria reorganized their tribal government
1999 – Wilton Rancheria requests federal recognition
2009 – Tribe regains federal recognition, listed in Federal Register, Vol. 74, no 132, p 33468-33469 as “Wilton Rancheria of Wilton, California”
2011 – Tribe adopted its present-day Constitution
2013 – Tribe was designated the geographic boundaries of the Service Delivery Area (SDA) of Sacramento County in the State of California
2017- Tribe land into trust Elk Grove, Ca
2022- Tribe opens Sky River Casino
2024- Mandatory land into trust at historic Wilton Rancheria