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It sounds like the script to a Hollywood movie: Poor Indian living on a disability check, miles from anywhere and only his feet to get him there.
But for Yakima Dixie (sounds like something right out of Central Casting), that has been his lifestyle for years. Except for the time he had to spend in jail.
Now his dreams of sugarplums have been answered. "Shower me with money," he shouts.
Dixie, of Sheep Ranch, Calif., is a member of the Sierra Miwok Tribe of Indians. In fact, he may be the only surviving member of the Miwok Tribe. But surely when word gets out that he’s being inundated with cash, he may find hordes of other Miwok Tribal members coming out of the woodwork.
Under a new gaming compact signed by California Gov. Gray Davis, all California Indian tribes that agree not to have gaming casinos will receive a stipend of $1 million annually, to be paid from a pool of money generated by a tax on tribes that operate casinos.
Thus, the Sierra Miwok Tribe, a non-gaming tribe, so far, will be entitled to its million a year. Spell the name on the check: Y-A-K-I-M-A D-I-X-I-E.
Actually, Dixie was unearthed, so to speak, by Amy Pyle, a staff-writer for the Los Angeles Times. She found him living in a 600 square-foot house, built for his now-deceased mother in 1966 by the federal government. Actually, both his mother and father were dead by the time Dixie got out of jail after being incarcerated on charges of burglary and second-degree murder.
In 1994, he found himself the only Sierra Miwok Indian on the "reservation" after his last aunt died in 1994 at age 100.
That posed a problem when he found that, if his tribe had at least five members, it would qualify for $160,000 the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs doled out to small tribes. So Dixie sought out a Miwok woman he had known as a child and enrolled her, her two daughters and a grand-daughter into the tribe. That may force him to share some of the gaming subsidy with his new tribal members.
Naturally, when word got around that the Sierra Miwok Tribe actually qualified for a casino license under the state’s gaming compact, carpetbaggers started whistling "Dixie." One man offered to buy 1,000 acres of land near a major crossroads and deed it to the Sierra Miwoks. Then he’d build a hotel and casino and cut Dixie in for about $5 million a year.
Suddenly, the former pig farm worker who was declared medically unfit to work is staring at more money than most people dream about.
All he has to do is — well, ah, nothing.
But for Yakima Dixie (sounds like something right out of Central Casting), that has been his lifestyle for years. Except for the time he had to spend in jail.
Now his dreams of sugarplums have been answered. "Shower me with money," he shouts.
Dixie, of Sheep Ranch, Calif., is a member of the Sierra Miwok Tribe of Indians. In fact, he may be the only surviving member of the Miwok Tribe. But surely when word gets out that he’s being inundated with cash, he may find hordes of other Miwok Tribal members coming out of the woodwork.
Under a new gaming compact signed by California Gov. Gray Davis, all California Indian tribes that agree not to have gaming casinos will receive a stipend of $1 million annually, to be paid from a pool of money generated by a tax on tribes that operate casinos.
Thus, the Sierra Miwok Tribe, a non-gaming tribe, so far, will be entitled to its million a year. Spell the name on the check: Y-A-K-I-M-A D-I-X-I-E.
Actually, Dixie was unearthed, so to speak, by Amy Pyle, a staff-writer for the Los Angeles Times. She found him living in a 600 square-foot house, built for his now-deceased mother in 1966 by the federal government. Actually, both his mother and father were dead by the time Dixie got out of jail after being incarcerated on charges of burglary and second-degree murder.
In 1994, he found himself the only Sierra Miwok Indian on the "reservation" after his last aunt died in 1994 at age 100.
That posed a problem when he found that, if his tribe had at least five members, it would qualify for $160,000 the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs doled out to small tribes. So Dixie sought out a Miwok woman he had known as a child and enrolled her, her two daughters and a grand-daughter into the tribe. That may force him to share some of the gaming subsidy with his new tribal members.
Naturally, when word got around that the Sierra Miwok Tribe actually qualified for a casino license under the state’s gaming compact, carpetbaggers started whistling "Dixie." One man offered to buy 1,000 acres of land near a major crossroads and deed it to the Sierra Miwoks. Then he’d build a hotel and casino and cut Dixie in for about $5 million a year.
Suddenly, the former pig farm worker who was declared medically unfit to work is staring at more money than most people dream about.
All he has to do is — well, ah, nothing.
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