September 30, 2009

Locks casino plan awaits final review
White House could loosen siting policy

By RaeLynn Ricarte
Hood River News

     The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs expect the final Environmental Impact Statement for a Cascade Locks casino to be released within the month.
     “All of the technical pieces have been addressed in a 5-inch-thick document that’s been packaged up and sent back to Washington, D.C.,” said Louis Pitt, director of government affairs and planning for the Warm Springs.
     “We really don’t know an exact date when it will be available for public review, but we think that it will be in October.”
     He said the tribes are optimistic that all of the “loose ends on the Cascade Locks proposal have been tied up” in the EIS. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has maintained its support of the Cascade Locks site as the “preferred alternative,” Pitt added.
     The BIA recognizes that placement of the gaming center within Cascade Locks’ city limits will most benefit the Warm Springs economically and be welcomed by the majority of city residents, Pitt said.
     The tribes want to build a 600,000-square-foot facility on 25 acres in the Port of Cascade Locks’ industrial park. Another 35 acres would be leased for parking spaces and other uses. About 90,000 square feet of the casino would be reserved for gaming and the remainder built into hotel rooms, a conference center, restaurants and shops.
     In 1988, Congress said tribes could develop off-reservation casinos that were in the best interest of the tribe and not detrimental to the local community.
     Pitt said the tribes chose to pursue a casino in Cascade Locks, a willing community, instead of building a gambling facility on their 40 acres of trust land just east of Hood River. That plan has been strongly opposed by both local governments and city residents.
     Pitt declined to provide further details about the data compiled in the EIS. He said there will be ample opportunity to discuss the information in the document once it is released.
     “It has been a long and arduous process that has required a lot of patience. But that is our strength — along with persistence,” said Pitt.
     “We have waited for more than four years to get this far at the federal level and, while we don’t think there will be a decision made by the Interior this year, we believe that it could happen in the early part of 2010.”
     Pitt said the Warm Springs are also following with great interest the Obama Administration’s decision to revisit rules that previously led to the denial of several off-reservation casinos.
     “It looks like the policies back in D.C. might be lightening up a little,” he said.
“However, our process has been independent of these other cases because we have always had treaty rights in the gorge and have maintained a presence here.”
     He said Michelle Obama told Native American leaders earlier this year to “Understand that you have a wonderful partner in the White House.” He believes the new look being given to the Bush Administration’s policies by Interior Sec. Ken Salazar backs up that statement.
     Under President George W. Bush, an off-reservation casino was prohibited unless it was sited within commuting distance of the reservation.
     “It’s an important issue. It’s a controversial issue and they’re rethinking it,” said George Skibine, a deputy assistant secretary at the BIA affairs, in a recent interview.
     He said that a decision on whether to change the policy could be expected “fairly soon.”
     Like the Warm Springs, many tribes are looking for revenue from a casino to help overcome high unemployment and poverty rates on the reservation.      According to a recent media report, about 22 Indian casinos have already been developed on non-reservation land, and about 20 tribes have off-reservation plans in the works.
     Pitt said some of these tribes are seeking to develop projects in areas where they have no ancestral ties. For that reason, he said the Warm Springs have a stronger case than most for an off-reservation casino.
     He said the Warm Springs signed over 10 million acres of land, including the gorge corridor, to the United States government in the treaty of 1855 and moved onto their Central Oregon reservation. However, he said the tribes legally retained their rights to hunt, fishing and gather foods on their ceded lands along the Columbia River.
     “We have been in the gorge every day for thousands of years,” said Pitt.