Organization
California Indian Legal Services (CILS)
California Indian Legal Services, a Sacramento nonprofit founded in 1967, represents tribes and Native individuals in federal Indian law matters.
- Kind
- Legal services nonprofit (501(c)(3))
- Native-led
- unverified
- Works with
- California tribes, tribal members and tribal organizations
- Region
- California; CA
- Focus
- Legal representation on tribal sovereignty, natural resource protection and Indian rights; free or low-cost services
- Registry
- EIN 94-1676390 (stated on org donate page; matches ProPublica, Sacramento CA)
What happened
California Indian Legal Services (CILS) is a nonprofit law office based in Sacramento. Its website says it was founded in 1967 and credits the combination of George Duke of California Rural Legal Assistance and "an inspired David Risling of the Hoopa Tribe." ProPublica lists it under EIN 94-1676390, with tax exemption issued in January 1968.
CILS says it offers "free or low-cost representation to both Native individuals and tribes in matters of federal Indian law." Its site also lists special projects, including a California water rights study and a veterans military discharge upgrade project, along with community education and outreach.
For results, CILS makes broad claims on its own site. It says it has "successfully left our mark in defending the most important rights of Indians and tribes in hundreds of major cases." It also reports dedicating 34,799 hours to advocacy in 2022. A testimonial on its site from Greg Sarris, chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, says CILS authored the bill signed by President Clinton on December 27, 2000, which recognized the Graton Rancheria as a federally recognized tribe.
These are the organization's own descriptions.
Good to know. A nonprofit law office, not a land holder. The claim that it wrote the Graton Rancheria recognition bill comes from a testimonial on its site.
Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error
What the sources say, and how this was checked
Supported by the sources below; some details rest on one source.
free or low-cost representation to both Native individuals and tribes in matters of federal Indian law.
California Indian Legal Services - Homesuccessfully left our mark in defending the most important rights of Indians and tribes in hundreds of major cases.
California Indian Legal Services - Homewith CILS we authored the bill that was eventually passed and signed by President Clinton on December 27, 2000.
California Indian Legal Services - Home (testimonial)Tax exemption issued: Jan. 1968
ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer - California Indian Legal Services Inc
Research notes. calindian.org blocked automated reading, so the home-page text was obtained through a fetch tool that returns quoted passages; verify against the live site. Leadership and whether staff and board are Native were not confirmed. The Graton claim is a testimonial from a tribal chairman, not checked against the statute. The organization is a law office, not a land-return holder.
Visit the organization’s website or give directly on its own page. This site takes no money.
Connections
These links were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.
Works in 1
Works with 1
Sources
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The record’s fields
- Vetting notes
- 2026-10-17: EIN printed on own donate page and found on ProPublica (Sacramento CA). Site says founded 1967 with David Risling of the Hoopa Tribe; says "Proudly Native" but a board/staff leadership page was not read (board URL returned 404), so Native leadership not verified. Donate page on calindian.org. Source: https://www.calindian.org/donate/ ("California Indian Legal Services, Inc., EIN 94-1676390, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and all donations are tax-deductible")
- Kind
- Organization
- Confidence
- Medium