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The Cowlitz Tribe's
casino proposal for the La Center junction is in serious trouble. Recent
legal decisions and public opinion have turned against it, and the
tribe has been attempting some Hail Mary plays, none of which has
gained much traction.
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Court denies tribe's
request
The Cowlitz Tribe was rebuffed Aug. 17 in Thurston County Superior
Court when it attempted to insert itself into Clark County's
appeal of a ruling on the county's Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
with the tribe.
The tribe wanted to join the
case so it could move to have it dismissed, which would reinstate the
MOU, a document that is a key part of its Environmental Impact
Statement.
>>Read
more, on our blog
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Tribe tries to
"fix" MOU situation
Now that its Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with Clark
County is
invalid, the Cowlitz Tribe is trying to keep its contents alive by
inserting them into its gaming ordinance, which originally was approved by the National Indian Gaming Commission
(NIGC) in November 2005.
The tribe has been framing this
plan as a way to ensure that problems arising from its proposed casino
development would be mitigated. But it is
clear that this is a last-ditch attempt to maintain an agreement so the
county would provide the property with services, if it is taken into trust by DOI.
A response to the proposal by
the county will be key.
>>Read more, on our blog
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Tribe blasts La Center
in DOI memo
The Cowlitz Tribe blasted La
Center's opposition to the tribe's proposed mega-casino and resort in a
July 20 memorandum to the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI).
The 19-page diatribe accuses La
Center of maneuvering to preserve the city's "private gaming
monopoly" (four privately owned cardrooms)
and keeping the tribe "from -- finally -- having a reservation of
its own." (It does not address the fact that very few Cowlitz
Tribe members live in the area or that the Cowlitz Tribe's aboriginal
homeland is located to the north, along the Cowlitz River.)
The La Center city attorney
sent a letter Thursday to DOI stating the city's strong disagreement
"with the tribe's characterization of the policy positions the
City Council has taken" and its legal arguments.
>>Read more, on our blog
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 Tribe tries to attach itself to
area
The
Cowlitz Tribe continues its quest to appear as if it has had a significant
presence in Clark
County
"since time immemorial." Most recently it has employed a
Clark County Fair booth ("Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Clark County.
Our Past. Our Future.") and a piece
written by Cowlitz Tribe Chairman John Barnett in the Aug. 22 Reflector
("Cowlitz
Tribe's history shows residency in Clark County").
CARS disputes the
tribe's inaccurate historic claims to Clark County
because it is using them in an attempt to fulfill Department of the
Interior (DOI) criteria. To take land into trust for gambling, newly
recognized tribes must first qualify for an exception to a federal
prohibition. The Cowlitz Tribe has applied for two exceptions: an
initial reservation and restored lands.
>>Read more, on our blog
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DOI unresponsive to Baird request
The Department of the Interior
(DOI) has not yet responded to Rep. Brian Baird's May request that the agency
release the Business Plan included in the Cowlitz Tribe's preliminary
Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a 30-day public comment
period.
The casino project's Business
Plan and attached "Unmet Needs Report," a required element of
the fee-to-trust application (which the tribe filed incompletely in
2006), appears to have been held back until the preliminary Final EIS
was released to cooperating agencies last spring. That way it could be used without public scrutiny to provide a
rationale for not considering a site in the Cowlitz Tribe's aboriginal
homeland. The preliminary Final EIS argues that a northern site would
not make enough money to satisfy the tribe's needs.
>>Read more, on our blog
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Reservation requests
on hold?
An
article in the Boston Globe raises questions about
whether the Cowlitz Tribe could even get land taken into trust until
the next President is in office.
In a story about what could
become Massachusetts'
first casino, the Boston Globe reported, "No action
is expected by the Interior Department during the next 18 months,
because President Bush's administration has said it will not approve
applications by federally recognized tribes to create reservation
land."
The reporter later said that he
had received the information from the Massachusetts tribe working on the
casino proposal.
>>Share your views, on our blog
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