Officials: Some Indian casino plans too far from reservations
Feds foil Burns Paiute Tribe plan for off-site gambling facility
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press
Thursday, February 28, 2008 10:25 AM PST
WASHINGTON — Indian tribes face long odds in winning federal approval for casinos in the Catskills or other locations that are hundreds of miles away from their reservations, the Bush administration told Congress Wednesday.
Defending the decision to reject 22 such off-reservation casino applications around the country, officials further angered tribal leaders who told the House Resources Committee that the government is trying to force Indians to stay on reservations with high unemployment and few opportunities.
‘‘This is paternalistic and oppressive,’’ said Hazel Hindsley, chairwoman of the St. Croix Chippewa of Wisconsin, which had sought federal approval for a casino project about 330 miles from their two reservations. That effort is now stuck in litigation.
Government officials wrote to 11 other tribes in January rejecting their applications on the grounds a far-flung casino could diminish the population actually living on the reservation.
Another 11 tribes, including the Burns Paiute Tribe in Oregon and the Lower Elwha in Washington State, received letters saying their off-reservation gaming applications were insufficient and would not be considered.
Of the 22 tribes to receive rejection letters, 14 had sought land for casinos at least 100 miles from where tribal members live.
Another Oregon casino proposal, made by the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, is proceeding although opponents have said that the distance from the site in the Columbia Gorge is about 100 miles from the tribal headquarters town where most members live, too far to offer jobs to most tribal members. Proponents say the reservation’s boundary is about 40 miles from the site and that both distances are within common commuting distances of many tribal members.
Assistant Secretary Carl Artman testified at Wednesday’s hearing that the Bureau of Indian Affairs ‘‘is used to dealing with requests for land 20, 30, or 50 miles away from a tribe’s reservation. The BIA is not accustomed to assessing applications for land 100, 200, or 1,500 miles away from a tribe’s reservation.’’
In New York, the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe had long sought approval to build a $600 million casino in the Catskill Mountains, about 90 miles from New York City and several hundred miles south of their reservation in Akwesasne along the Canadian border.
Local and state authorities supported the plan, but the federal government rejected that application, as well as that of the Stockbridge Munsee of Wisconsin, who also sought to build a casino in the Catskills.
‘‘It was a complete miscarriage of justice,’’ said Lorraine White, one of three St. Regis chiefs.
White said the argument made by the government that some casinos are too distant to sustain a reservation is contradicted by the generations of Mohawks who travel to far-off cities to work at high-rise construction sites.
‘‘They go where the jobs are because the jobs don’t exist on the reservation,’’ she said.
In his testimony, Artman did not define how far is too far for an off-reservation casino. White argued there should be no distance barrier at all, since one doesn’t exist in current law. The committee chairman, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., called the implications of the decision ‘‘disturbing,’’ and suggested the administration may be advocating a policy ‘‘to keep Indians on the reservation.’’
Indian gambling is a huge business, pulling in $25 billion in 2006, an annual increase of 11 percent, according to federal figures. Indian gambling revenue has nearly doubled in five years.
In 1988, Congress passed a law creating the legal framework for Indian gambling. The law let Indian tribes, with the consent of a state’s governor, run slot machines and other profitable games on their reservations even when they were not allowed elsewhere in the state.
There are more than 400 Indian gambling facilities nationwide operated by more than 200 tribes. They range from full-blown casinos with slot machines and other Las Vegas-style games to smaller gambling centers offering video poker, bingo or other games short of slots.
