Golden Checkerboard

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Golden Checkerboard (1965) is a biographical novel by Ed Ainsworth; its subject matter concerns the mid-20th century economic conditions of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of Palm Springs, California and the history of the 99-year lease law which enabled them to commercially develop tribal owned lands. The book portrays Indio Superior Court Judge Hilton McCabe as a "Great White Father,"¹ recalling steps purportedly taken by him to secure legislation that would endow the tribe with investment opportunities and economic self-sufficiency. The title of the book refers to the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation's checkerboard pattern, granted originally to the Southern Pacific Railroad as an incentive to build rail lines through the region.

Contents

0.1 Historical Context

0.1.1 Conservatorship Program
0.1.2 Corruption Exposed

0.2 Authorship in Question
0.3 Sources

Historical Context

After Golden Checkerboard was published in 1965, its disparaging, paternalist tone so offended Agua Caliente tribal members that all available copies are rumored to have been collected and burned. Some historical context is useful in understanding Agua Caliente reaction to the book.

Judge Hilton McCabe, subject of Ed Ainsworth's Golden Checkerboard

Conservatorship Program

In 1959, landmark legislation by the Secretary of the Interior equalized allotted Indian lands, thereby setting the stage for development of Indian lands within the City of Palm Springs. This same legislation, however, recognizing the potential value of Indian lands within the boundaries of a world famous resort, also called for the appointment of conservators and guardians to "protect" Indians and their estates from "artful and designing persons"² who might otherwise cheat them out of their properties, which could now be legally sold by the individual tribal members who owned them. By declaring Indians as "incompetent," court appointed conservators and guardians took control of a majority of Indian estates. A major oversight of the program was the appointment of judges, lawyers, and business people as Indian conservators and guardians -- the very people the program sought to protect Indians and their estates from. The program was administered by the Indio Superior Court's Judge Hilton McCabe, subject of Golden Checkerboard. McCabe concurrently acted as a conservator to a number of tribal members and an executor, in addition to his administrative and legal roles.

Corruption Exposed

Bolstered by the ability to control valuable Indian estates, the conservatorship program fostered corruption among those conservators and administrators with their own economic agendas. A series of Pulitzer Prize winning Press Enterprise articles authored by journalist [George Ringwald] exposed such instances of excessive fees, fee-splitting, and other types of questionable conduct.³ The conservatorship program was officially ended in 1968 after the Secretary of the Interior's [Palm Springs Task Force] similarly exposed it as fraudulent and corrupt.⁴ Under scrutinous circumstances so potentially damaging to McCabe's career, as administrator of the program and as a conservator himself, it is not surprising that the arguably propagandist Golden Checkerboard should emerge in 1965 as a defense tool. Perhaps not coincidentally, McCabe gave up administration of the conservatorship program this same year.⁵

Authorship in Question

Some scholars speculate that Hilton McCabe paid Ed Ainsworth to author Golden Checkerboard, though no direct evidence has substantiated this claim to date.

Indirect evidence, however, would seem to indicate that McCabe penned much of Golden Checkerboard himself. Comparison of McCabe's unpublished manuscript Land Problems and Solutions of the Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians with text from Ainsworth's Golden Checkerboard reveals a substantial amount of content duplication:

The self-defensive theme "a person who was in a neutral position and had no ulterior motive [was required] to undertake the process [of obtaining long-term lease reform]"⁶ dominates both texts, lauding McCabe as a sort of messianic redeemer.

Golden Checkerboard's opening chapter describes McCabe as "rescuing" a homeless, unnamed Cahuilla family by providing them with a home.⁷ In Land Problems, McCabe recalls a similar story, describing the sale of an unnamed Cahuilla family's allotted land for the purpose of purchasing them a home.⁸

Both texts take on a revisionist quality by failing to mention the the roles tribal attorneys, local officials, developers, and tribal members themselves played in securing long-term lease legislation from official agencies in Washington D.C.

Sources

¹Golden Checkerboard, The (1965), Ed Ainsworth.
²Summary of Indian Conditions, Palm Springs, California (1962), Hilton McCabe, Indio Superior Court.
³Agua Caliente Indians and Their Guardians, The (1968), George Ringwald, Press Enterprise.
⁴Final Report of the Palm Springs Task Force ("The Cox Report") (1968), Palm Springs Task Force (Secretary of the Interior).
⁵Agua Caliente Indians and Their Guardians, The (1968), George Ringwald, Press Enterprise.
⁶Land Problems and Solutions of the Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians (1961), Hilton McCabe, Indio Superior Court.
⁷Golden Checkerboard, The (1965), Ed Ainsworth.
⁸Land Problems and Solutions of the Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians (1961), Hilton McCabe, Indio Superior Court.

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