People of the West — Season 1, Episode 9: Gaming
64 min • 1 season, 10 episodes
Episode synopsis
When armed deputies raid a small card room on the Cabazon Reservation, young Brenda Soulliere finds herself at the center of a fight that will redefine Native sovereignty. Led by Chairman Art Welmas and attorney Glenn Feldman, the tribe challenges California’s right to regulate gaming on Indian land. As the case ascends to the Supreme Court, generations of injustice collide with courage and conviction—sparking the modern Indian gaming era and proving that sovereignty is not granted, but exercised.
About People of the West
People of the West is a ten-part premium documentary series that reclaims the history of California through Indigenous perspectives. Blending oral histories, tribal archives, expert insight, and cinematic recreations, the series spans from creation stories and pre-contact life through colonization, state-sponsored violence, resistance, and cultural survival. Each episode centers Native voices and lived experience, reframing well-known events—from the mission system and Gold Rush to Alcatraz and modern sovereignty movements—through those who endured them. Visually ambitious and emotionally grounded, the series pairs sweeping landscapes with intimate storytelling to reveal California as it has always been: Native land. Designed to live both on screen and in classrooms, People of the West offers a corrective to dominant narratives while highlighting the resilience, continuity, and contemporary presence of Native nations shaping the state today.