"Smart generals pick their battles wisely. In trying to enforce the state’s new smoking ban in a Puyallup tribal casino, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has picked the wrong battle.

In fact, the issue of smoking in tribal casinos shouldn’t be a battle at all; it should be a matter of government-to-government negotiations. If it becomes a fight, the tribes will prevail and public health will lose.

The department believes the initiative applies to the casino because the tribe entered into an agreement with Fife to run the establishment “in a manner consistent with the requirements of the health and safety ordinances” of the city. That’s a stretch at best: Fife’s city attorney says the agreement was about local safety ordinances and police jurisdiction.

In any case, the health department blundered by treating a Puyallup tribal enterprise as if it were a balky tavern or commercial casino.

Under the law, a federally recognized Indian nation is a sovereign government with legal status comparable to the State of Washington itself.

And in the Puyallups’ case, sovereignty is reinforced by the far-reaching land-claims settlement the tribe reached with non-Indian governments – including Tacoma and Pierce County – in 1990."

Get the Story:
Editorial: This is no way to win a tribal smoking ban (The Tacoma News-Tribune 2/28)
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