The sin of what European settlers and then our nation did in the near-extermination of Native Americans is equaled only by our sin of enslaving Africans.

Now, it's to the very same federal government that rained down terror on their people that the indigenous people's descendants must turn in their quest.

But it turns out that the way many California tribes were organized and governed doesn't fit into the grand tribal manner of the Iroquois or the Sioux, and that makes recognition harder.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs refused, over three months of asking, to even comment on the recognition process beyond the officially posted regulations. But the process clearly is tougher for California tribes, only one of which has been newly recognized since the 1970s.