Tohono O'odham Nation won't drop off-reservation bid

Wednesday, January 20, 2010  

The Tohono O'odham Nation won't drop plans for an off-reservation casino, Chairman Ned Norris Jr. said.

The tribe wants to build a $550 million resort near Glendale. The gaming site was acquired through a land claim settlement act so the tribe says it can open a casino there.

But Gov. Jan Brewer (R) wants the tribe to drop the project. She says a voter proposition that passed in 2002 implicitly restricted gaming to existing reservations.

"It assured voters if they supported the balance contained within it that all casino-style gambling would be limited to existing tribal communities and would not become a part of off-reservation neighborhoods," Brewer wrote in a letter to the Tohono O'odham Nation, Capitol Media Servcies reported. "I do not believe the voters ever anticipated that gaming in this state would be anywhere other than on the tribal lands that existed at the time of Proposition 202."

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Brewer wants Glendale-area casino stopped (Capitol Media Services 1/20)