Off-reservation casino killed in final days of Bush era

National | Politics

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

After waiting more than seven years for an answer, two Wisconsin tribes whose off-reservation casino has strong local support were rejected by the Bush administration on Tuesday.

The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and the St. Croix Chippewa Indians filed their land-into-trust application for the Beloit casino project in July 2001. That was only a few months after President Bush took office but the project sat in limbo for years even though local officials and members of Congress supported it.

The landscape began to shift in May 2006, when Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne joined by the administration. As governor of Idaho, he opposed off-reservation gaming and within months, the Interior Department and the Bureau of Indian Affairs were making it harder for tribes to acquire land for casinos.

The Bad River Band anticipated the changes and filed a lawsuit to challenge the way its project was being reviewed at the BIA. A month later, in January 2008, the administration issued a "guidance memorandum" that essentially killed all pending off-reservation casinos.

With less than a week left before president-elect Barack Obama takes office, the guidance memo was used to reject the Bad River/St. Croix project. A letter from George Skibine, a career BIA official who is in charge of the agency, said the casino would not benefit the tribes because it is too far from their respective reservations.

"While the financial benefits of the proposed gaming facility might create revenues for the tribes and may mitigate some potential negative impacts, the tribes' application fails to carefully address and comprehensively analyze the potential negative impacts on reservation life and does not clearly demonstrate why these negative impacts should be outweighed by the financial benefits of tribal ownership of a remote gaming facility," Skibine wrote.

Tribal leaders weren't surprised by the last-minute decision. "We will continue to fight," said St. Croix Chairwoman Hazel Hindsley, citing the ongoing lawsuit.

Tribal leaders also said they were hopeful the new administration will change course. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colorado), Obama's pick for Interior secretary, will go before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee tomorrow for his confirmation hearing.

"We are pleased that Secretary Kempthorne is moving on and are disappointed that he felt it necessary to clean off his desk on the way out but this usually happens," said Bad River Chairman Eugene Bigby. "We are optimistic that his replacement Secretary Salazar will recognize this injustice and allow our application to proceed."

Salazar is well-liked by the tribes in his state and has co-sponsored Indian legislation during his time on Capitol Hill. But he doesn't have a record on Indian gaming and hasn't stated his positions on like land-into-trust applications and other issues.

And tribes won't know how they feel about a new assistant secretary for Indian affairs until Obama nominates someone for the post. Despite not knowing who is joining the team, allies on Capitol Hill said Indian Country will be in better hands after January 20.

"Secretary Kempthorne's personal opposition to off-reservation gaming is well known," said Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin). "Regrettably, in his last days in office, he has made a decision based not on law, but on his own personal bias."

The January 2008 guidance memorandum was used to reject 11 off-reservation casino projects only a day after it was issued. Since then, one other tribe -- the Menominee Nation, also of Wisconsin -- has been denied.

Tribes and their advocates are hopeful the Obama administration will revise or outright rescind the memo, which was developed without consultation and without public notice. Obama and Salazar have promised they won't impose mandates on tribes without consulting them.

The rejected tribes also could submit new applications, since nothing in federal law prevents it, but the high cost and time-consuming nature of the process creates a disincentive. The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe of New York withdrew a lawsuit after its off-reservation casino was rejected in January 2008.

BIA Letter:
George Skibine to Bad River Band/St. Croix Chippewa (January 13, 2009)

Off-Reservation Gaming Policy:
Guidance on taking off-reservation land into trust for gaming purposes (January 3, 2008)