The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians (SVBPI) is a landless Tribe with a current membership of nearly 300 Tribal members. The Tribal offices are located in the City of Lakeport, Lake County, and the City of Concord, Contra Costa County in California. The Tribal youth population, under the age of 18 years, comprises 41% of the Tribes’ membership. The member population is concentrated in five counties of California (Alameda, Contra Costa, Lake, Mendocino, and Sonoma Counties).

In 1851, the federal government sent agents to negotiate treaties with the Pomo Tribes. Many Tribes agreed to give up most of their lands after the government set aside 7.5 million acres for those California Tribes that signed treaties with the U.S. government. However, the U.S. Senate ultimately rejected the treaties, even though the Tribes had honored them. In 1911, the federal government purchased a 56-acre parcel for the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians (traditional name Ye-Ma-Bax) that became known as the Sugar Bowl Rancheria. The SVBPI Tribe resided on the Sugar Bowl Rancheria with limited access to water and plumbing with poor housing conditions until 1965, when the Tribe and Rancheria were terminated by the Federal Government as part of a sweeping policy to get rid of small reservations and assimilate Indians into mainstream society. The Rancheria land was parceled out to Tribal members and was no longer considered trust land. Most of the trust land was lost once it became “fee” land due to Tribal members’ inability to afford the payment of the required taxes.

In 1972, a federal task force concluded that the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians was the only Pomo Indian Tribe that should be entirely relocated, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) relocated a vast majority of Tribal Members to the Bay Area. With relocation came the loss of language and cultural and traditional ways.

In 1986, members of the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians sued the federal government, which ultimately restored the Tribe's federal recognition in 1992. The history of disenfranchisement, relocation, and termination that took place over decades cut the Tribe off from its land base, and essentially destroyed the subsistence economy and quality-of-life from what little they at one time had.