Editorial: Don't negotiate for Cowlitz Tribe casino

Thursday, June 4, 2009  

"It makes even less sense now than it did a year ago for the La Center City Council to be talking with the Cowlitz Tribe about the casino that’s proposed near the north county town. Yet the council members at a June 10 meeting will discuss a possible resumption of negotiations with tribal officials.

There’s nothing wrong with discussing, we suppose, as long as the answer to the tribe continues to be “No deal! No way!” Credit La Center Mayor Jim Irish for promoting a full airing of the issue at 7 p.m. next Wednesday in the La Center Community Center. And the timing of this meeting is understandable. On July 14, a year-old extension of an offer to the city from the Cowlitz will expire. But two key stories have emerged in the past year, both in courtrooms and both suggesting that La Center not only should avoid negotiating with the Cowlitz but should more actively oppose the $510 million, 134,150-square-foot casino:

On Feb. 24, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the federal government’s authority to take land into trust for Indian tribes. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a case involving the Narragansett Indian Tribe in Rhode Island that the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act “unambiguously refers to those tribes that were under the federal jurisdiction” in 1934. The Narragansetts did not become a tribe until 1983. More specific to this corner of the country, the Cowlitz Tribe was not formally recognized by the feds until 2002. The February ruling, as we editorialized at the time, appears to work against the Cowlitz proposal. But we also conceded that a full understanding of the court ruling — and whether Congress will take any action pertaining to the ruling’s impact on tribal casinos — remain for the future."

Get the Story:
In Our View June 4: Say 'No' in La Center (The Columbian 6/4)

Earlier Story:
City urged to negotiate with Cowlitz Tribe over casino (6/3)