The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Mission Indians from Southern California, located in the unincorporated area of San Diego County just east of El Cajon. The Sycuan band are a Kumeyaay tribe, one of the four ethnic groups indigenous to San Diego County.
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Reservation and administration
The Sycuan Reservation is located at 32°46′57″N 116°49′59″W. The nearest outside communities are the unincorporated communities of Harbison Canyon and Crest.
Cody Martinez is their current tribal chairman.
The band operates two waste water treatment plants, a sequencing batch reactor used for their casino, administrative buildings, and maintenance buildings. They also operate and own a modular treatment plant in a flood plain near one of their residential areas. The tribe operates a water treatment facility which controls their nitrate levels. Additionally, the tribe operates a small medical clinic, dental office, fire department and tribal police force. In 2005, they eliminated their environmental epartment for political and economic reasons. In 2004, they installed a new air conditioning system, internal control systems, and a new parking lot.
Economic development
The move toward casino gaming on the Sycuan Band reservation was spearheaded by the Sycuan Band's former chairwoman, Anna Prieto Sandoval. The Sycuan Band opened its first gambling facility, the Sycuan Bingo Palace, on their reservation in 1983. As a direct evolution from that successful venture, they now run a profitable casino, as well as an off-reservation golf course (purchased from a previous owner) and hotel (new construction on the golf course site) on the southeastern outskirts of El Cajon, California, which itself is an eastern suburb of San Diego, California. The Sycuan band is not the only San Diego-area band to operate significant commercial enterprises off-reservation.
The Sycuan band purchased the downtown San Diego landmark U. S. Grant Hotel in 2003. It also advertises heavily in relation to the San Diego Padres major-league baseball team (including both television and radio commercials during game broadcasts, and posted advertising at Petco Park, the team's home field).
Sycuan Institute on Tribal Gaming
The Sycuan band also provides an endowment to support the Sycuan Institute on Tribal Gaming, a research institute at San Diego State University.