Anna Prieto Sandoval was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 leader of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation

Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation

The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Mission Indians from Southern California, near the El Cajon. The Sycuan band are a Kumeyaay tribe, one of the four ethnic groups indigenous to San Diego County....

 of southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

 and a Native American gaming enterprises pioneer. She is credited with lifting the Sycuan Band reservation, which was plagued by poverty and substandard housing, to self-sufficiency by pioneering casino

Casino

In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...

 gambling on the reservation

Indian reservation

An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...

.

Bckground

Sandoval was born on May 14, 1934, on the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay

Kumeyaay

The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai, Kamia, or formerly Diegueño, are Native American people of the extreme southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. They live in the states of California in the US and Baja California in Mexico. In Spanish, the name is commonly spelled...

 Nation reservation. She grew up speaking the Kumeyaay language

Kumeyaay language

Kumeyaay , also known as Central Diegueño, Kamia, and Campo, is the Native American language spoken by the Kumeyaay people of southern San Diego and Imperial counties in California. Hinton suggested a conservative estimate of 50 surviving Kumeyaay speakers...

 as her first language

First language

A first language is the language a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity...

. Her mother, Ada Prieto, was also born on the Sycuan reservation. Sandoval attended Dehesa Elementary and Grossmont High School

Grossmont High School

Grossmont High School is the oldest high school in San Diego's east county, California. Its mascot is the Foothiller, so chosen because, at the time of the school’s construction, east county was much more isolated from the rest of San Diego than it is today and was often referred to as the...

 in El Cajon, California

El Cajon, California

-History:El Cajon is located on the Rancho El Cajon Mexican land grant made in 1845 to María Antonia Estudillo, wife of Miguel Pedrorena. In 1876 Amaziah Lord Knox , a New Englander who had recently moved to California, established a hotel there to serve the growing number of people traveling...

.

Sandoval was married twice and raised five children. Her first marriage, which occurred in 1953, ended in divorce. She attended Grossmont College

Grossmont College

Grossmont College is a community college located in El Cajon, California, in the county of San Diego. The campus sits in the Fletcher Hills community of El Cajon and is bordered by the cities of San Diego and Santee. Grossmont College is one of the two colleges that make up the Grossmont-Cuyamaca...

 in El Cajon after raising her children. Sandoval later taught the Kumeyaay language at San Diego State University

San Diego State University

San Diego State University , founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, is the largest and oldest higher education facility in the greater San Diego area , and is part of the California State University system...

.

Leadership

Sandoval became the chairwoman of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in 1972. In 1972, the year she took office, none of the eighty Sycuan members who resided on the reservation had full time employment. The housing on the reservation lacked indoor plumbing, with a small meeting hall and a deteriorating one hundred year old Catholic Church. Most structures were on the reservation were dilapidated.

Sandoval spearheaded the Sycuan Band's transition from poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

 after the state of California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 allowed Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 tribes to open gambling operations. She initially resistance from the Sycuan tribal council regarding the idea of opening a bingo hall on reservation land. Members were concerned about potential pollution and large numbers of people swamping the small reservation. However, Sandoval was approached by Pan American International, which operated a Seminole

Seminole

The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...

 bingo hall in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 at the time, with a proposal to open a bingo hall on Sycuan land.

Sandoval opened the Sycuan Bingo Palace in 1983 after several years of preparation and negotiations. The new operation quickly grossed higher revenues and profits than initially expected.

In 1987, Sandoval and the Sycuan Band broke away from Pan American International and began to run the Sycuan Bingo Palace independently. Under Sandoval, the tribe constructed a new 68000 square feet (6,317.4 m²) casino, which opened to the public in 1990. The Sycuan Band used the revenues from the casino to build new facilities on the reservation, including a new fire station, church and clinic. Unemployment, which had been rampant on the reservation before gaming, became nonexistent and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation became one of the wealthiest tribes in the United States. The Sycuan Band also became one of the largest employers in San Diego County. Likewise, Sandoval became one of the wealthiest Native Americans in California due to the windfall from the casino.

Controversy

Despite the new prosperity, Sandoval alienated some Sycuan Band members during her tenure as chairwoman. In 1991, she lost her re-election by just three votes. She later expressed regret that the increased prosperity had come at the expense of traditional Kumeyaay values and culture.

Death and legacy

Anna Prieto Sandoval died of complications of diabetes at her home on the Sycuan band reservation on October 28, 2010, at the age of 76. She was survived by three sons, Joseph, Raymond and Orlando; fifteen grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by two daughters, Marquette Riberas and Cheryl Haywood. Most of Sandoval's possessions and clothing were burned in accordance with Kumeyaay traditions.