Assistant secretary Larry EchoHawk said the Obama administration is developing its off-reservation gaming policy but warned that the process will take some time.

The Bush administration made it harder for tribes to acquire land away from existing reservations. The policies were used to reject more than a dozen off-reservation casinos.

"The policy on off-reservation gaming will be reviewed by the new administration," EchoHawk said yesterday during a visit to New York, The Middletown Times Herald-Record reported. "That process is under way. Eventually, the office of the assistant secretary of Indian Affairs will present options and recommendations to the secretary of the Interior, but that process has some way to go."

"I am not going to guess about how soon we are going to make that decision," he added. "We will be taking a look, in a very broad way, at gaming policy across the board. Off-reservation gaming policy will be included in that review."

EchoHawk visited off-reservation casinos sites in the Catskills. The Bush administration rejected applications from three tribes in 2008.

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Bureau of Indian Affairs head tours Sullivan casino sites (The Middletown Times Herald-Record 8/27)