Indian Tribe Partners With Riverside County For Future Land Deals

Tribal Vice-Chairman Raymond Torres gave Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit a gift: a black-and-white rattle.

The gift commemorated Wednesday’s historic event.

The Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians Tribal Council inked a two-year deal with the county to manage future land projects efficiently.

“It was two independent processes aimed at the same goal,” said Benoit, “and duplicating many of the same efforts and in some cases charging duplicate fees.”

This is the first agreement of its kind between the two groups. Vice-Chairman Torres compared it to an olive branch. He and the late Supervisor Roy Wilson began talking about this unique partnership as far back as 2005.

“We don’t want to put up light industrial next to your residential,” explained Torres.

Benoit believed this collaboration will be appealing to future developers.

“Here’s a tribe that has a pre-agreement with the county to simplify the process and get your project done sooner,” he said.

Unfortunately, this new partnership came too late for some developments. It could have helped steer some mobile home parks located on the reservation in the right direction, most notably the dilapidated Duroville, whose fate is now in the hands of the federal government.

“Oh, definitely!” said Torres. “We would’ve been regulating from day one. But, you see, this [partnership] wasn’t in place. So, Duroville kind of took off, and it grew.”

Tribal members sang ceremonial songs to begin the special gathering at the Tribal Hall. One member said the songs traditionally were done when good things happened to the tribe.

He may be on to something.