TRIBAL HISTORY

The Me-Wuk Indians of the Buena Vista Rancheria are an integral part of California’s Native American history. They have lived in and around what is now Amador County for thousands of years. As a result of mission period, gold rush and then diseases that Indian people had never been exposed to, the Me-Wuks’ numbers shrunk dramatically over the last three centuries. By the late 19th Century, the Me-Wuks in the Amador County area were reduced to a smattering of individual families. The Buena Vista Band and its descendents lived through some of the most horrific times in American history. From Casus Oliver and his mother escaping Mission San Jose, to surviving the Gold Rush, to continuing to practice their culture when it was forbidden. Today is what became of one such family, the direct lineal descendents of Louis and Annie Oliver.

Village of Upusani, Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, circa 1915.
We•nawista, which is the Me-Wuk translation for Buena Vista.

Since at least 1817 the Oliver family have lived at the village of Upusani. In 1927, the United states acquired the 67 acre parcel in trust, which established the Buena Vista reservation.

In 1958 the California Rancheria Act was enacted, which terminated the Buena Vista Rancheria. A plan for distribution was established which listed Louis and Annie Oliver.

Louis Oliver and his grandson Jesse Flying Cloud Pope on the
Buena Vista Rancheria, circa 1960.

In the late 1970s, litigation was brought against the United States challenging the termination of tribes under the  California Rancheria Act of 1958. In that class-action lawsuit, members of terminated tribes showed that the act was being implemented illegally and unfairly. The judgment resulting from that litigation “unterminated” the tribes, including the Buena Vista Rancheria, and restored their status as federally recognized Indian tribes. As a result of this restoration, the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California was listed in the Federal Register on February 13, 1985, as, once again, a federally recognized Indian tribe. The Tribe remains so listed today.

Louis and Annie Oliver will be forever honored for their dedication to sustain a home for the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians’ future generations. They were able to remain keepers of this land at a time when many tribes lost their land and their traditions. Louis Oliver carried on the traditions of his father, Casus Oliver. Now, their great-granddaughter, Rhonda L. Morningstar Pope carries on their traditions.