Posted on 12/28/2024 4:19:14 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Nearly a decade ago, members of a Northern California Native American tribe, the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, made a big bet when they bought 160 untouched acres north of San Francisco to erect a $700 million casino resort it had no approval to build.
Today it is one of three tribal casino projects mired in controversy and awaiting a go-ahead from the Interior Department. The projects, which the tribes say are allowed under an exception in federal law, have set off a fierce debate about tribal sovereignty and have turned tribes opposed to the projects against an administration that has championed Native American interests.
“The Department of the Interior has worked through a secretive, backdoor, fast-track process,” said Anthony Roberts, the chairman of another California tribe, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, which opposes the Scotts Valley casino. “Unfortunately, Yocha Dehe’s been left out.”
Several opposing tribes have already sued to halt progress on two of the three proposed casinos. In one suit, a judge last week granted a temporary injunction that paused any plans for one of the casinos before a hearing next month. It is unclear whether the battle will be resolved before the end of the Biden administration, and what the Trump administration might do about it.
Scotts Valley and the two other tribes seeking casinos — Koi Nation in Sonoma County, Calif., and the Coquille Indian Tribe in southwestern Oregon — lost their land in the 1950s and 1960s when the U.S. government terminated the federal recognition of many Native American tribes. In more recent decades the government reversed course and recognized the three tribes, but their federal land was never restored.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Just pay your kickbacks to the politic persons.
And make sure the big guy gets his 10 percent.
Strange set of circumstances. So this tribe is more or less historically tied to the region but was “dispossessed” so to speak. They did not get a reservation so they bought some forest land. But really not to preserve their history or dynasty but to build a resort casino. It’s all very bizarre. The libertarian in me says let ‘em do what they want on their own land. Still it’s taken a very odd course to get to where they are now, and still mired in lawsuits by competitive tribes. Well at least they aren’t at literal war with hatchets and rifles and arrows. Just legal war.
There is still time. 🤡
At first glance, I thought it said Porno Indians.
If the engines want to think they’re a nation, then they can be treated as such, starting with Trump erecting very lightly manned border stations.
Fine build your casino but no electrical power and no water.
Back when all this Tribal casino business began the beginning of the “New Age” craze, the Tribes had a choice: make money by setting up spas where they used their native medicine to heal people, remaining true to their cultures, or go for the quick buck and build casinos with foreign investment ( usually Indonesian )?
The moderates lost to the ruling families because the medical choice would give power to ordinary tribal members ( best kept in drugs and alcohol while being used to plea for more money from the BIA ). So as it is the ruling families continue to rake in the dough, and the rest get one of the scarce jobs, if they are well connected, else they get nothing.
Tribal Reservations need to be eliminated. Pass all the land to the existing members of each tribe, and then let them form an HOA if they want. But at this point they should be regular Americans, just like everyone else.
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