Excerpt from Where the Road Ends, Havasu Palms...Recipes & Remembrances

       Before Parker Dam was built in the 1930's the area now known as Lake Havasu was a portion of the Colorado River, bordering the states of California and Arizona. According to A. L. Kroeber's Handbook of the Indians of California, the Mohave and Halchidhoma Tribes made their homes along the California side of the Colorado River. The border of the two tribal territories was near the present day community of Parker Dam, California. To the Halchidhoma's southern border lay the Yuma territory.
       The Mohave Indians chased the Halchidhoma from the area, and eventually invited various bands of the Chemehuevi (who lived to the northwest of the Mohave) to live along the Colorado River. Tensions later developed between the two tribes and the Chemehuevi were driven from the area for a time.
       By 1900 the land along the California side of the Colorado River was open to homesteading. In 1907 the Secretary of Interior anticipated that Congress would be adding the lands to the various Mission Indian Reservations. Because of this, he withdrew land along the California side of the Colorado River from "all forms of settlement and entry, pending action by Congress authorizing the additions of the lands described to the various Mission Indian Reservations."
       Although the Chemehuevi Indians were not Mission Indians, they were mentioned by Special Agent Kelsey, who submitted the report to the Secretary of Interior, which prompted the land withdrawal.
       In 1921 the Bureau of Indian Affairs processed public domain allotments along the California side of the Colorado River, under the provisions of the Allotment Act of February 28, 1891, for seven Indians. According to history professor, Stephen Beckham, of Lewis and Clark College, these allotments were made under a provision which dealt with non-reservation land, as opposed to reservation land. Therefore, Beckham contended that this, along with other facts, showed that no Chemehuevi Reservation had been legally established along the California side of the Colorado River.
       When Parker Dam was built, portions of the shoreline along the river would eventually be covered by the new lake. Metropolitan Water Company purchased sections of the river shoreline. They paid both the Mohave and Chemehuevi Tribes for land along the Colorado River. After the dam was completed, the purchased shoreline, which had not been covered by water, was turned over to the Federal Government.
       Before the dam was built, the area sited on maps as Road's End Camp (12 miles north of Parker Dam, California) was the location of a mining claim. After the dam was completed, one mine was covered by the new lake. The miner then secured a lease from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a fishing camp, which he named Road's End Camp. By the mid-sixties the business located on the site was incorporated under the name Havasu Palms, Inc.
       In 1964 the Chemehuevi Tribe received a second payment for the land along the Colorado River. At that time the Indian Claims Commission rendered a judgment in favor of the Tribe for $996,834.81 for "aboriginal lands including whatever interest it may have possessed in the alleged Chemehuevi Valley Indian Reservation on the west bank of the Colorado River."
       In June of 1970 the Chemehuevi Tribe adopted one of its first constitutions, which enabled it to become a recognized tribe by the Federal Government.
       In spite of the ongoing controversy over the legal creation of the Chemehuevi Indian Reservation, reservation boundaries have been on the maps for over forty years. In 1974 some 30 miles of shoreline, which had reportedly been purchased twice from the Chemehuevi Tribe, was added to the alleged Chemehuevi Reservation. This stretch of shoreline began north of Lake Havasu City, at Havasu Landing, and extended beyond the southern border of the original site of Road's End Camp.
       Those located on the land - homeowners and businesses alike - suddenly found themselves no longer under the protection of the U.S. Constitution. Property they once owned under the terms of Federal leases, was now subject to the whims of the Chemehuevi Tribe. And as the years elapsed, this harsh reality would evolve into the volatile situation that is taking place on the reservation today.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  Havasu Palms’ lease with the Chemehuevi Tribe expired in 1999. The Tribe, which refused to negotiate with Havasu Palms for a new lease, seized much of Havasu Palms’ personal property in 1999 – a direct violation of terms set forth in the lease between the two parties.  Havasu Palms Inc. went to Federal Arbitration with the Tribe, and although the judgment was in favor of Havasu Palms, the federal government later set aside the judgment, stating it was not in the best interest of the Tribe.