Editorial: Casino foes seek to steal Tohono O'odham land

Wednesday, March 24, 2010  

"A southeastern Arizona Indian tribe has a lot of power arrayed against its efforts to establish a casino, mostly because of where it would be located.

The Tohono O'odham Nation is primarily located in Pima County but it is seeking to build its newest casino near the Arizona Cardinals stadium on land it purchased as part of compensation for 10,000 acres of reservation land it lost when a dam was built on the Gila River by the federal government.

Obviously, this has become a complicated and politicized dispute. But it appears there is an abuse of government power about to take place.

The tribe had the right under the compensation provided by the federal government to acquire land in Maricopa County to replace its lost reservation land. It bought the land some seven years ago. It recently decided to bring it into the reservation and build a casino there, something it also had a right to do.

Now attempts are being made to improperly use the power of the state government to take away the ability of the tribe to use the land as it sees most beneficial.

Those who oppose the location of the casino have a right to express their unhappiness with the idea and to try to convince the tribe to use its land in a different way, but they do not have the right to in effect "steal" the land from the Tohono O'odham Nation."

Get the Story:
Abuse of powewr may take place (The Yuma Sun 3/24)

Earlier Stories:
Tohono O'odham Nation sues over off-reservation casino (3/23)
Tohono O'odham Nation slams bill targeting casino bid (3/18)
Vote planned on bill targeting Tohono O'odham casino (3/16)
Tohono O'odham Nation loses ruling in gaming site case (3/12)
NCAI joins Tohono O'odham off-reservation casino fight (3/9)
Tohono O'odham off-reservation casino bid still at BIA (3/8)
Bill affects Tohono O'odham off-reservation casino bid (2/26)
Bill targets Tohono O'odham off-reservation casino bid (2/3)
Tohono O'odham Nation 'more committed' to casino (1/28)
Sen. Kyl voices opposition to Tohono O'odham casino (1/27)
McCain joins opposition to off-reservation casino bid (1/21)
Tohono O'odham Nation won't drop off-reservation bid (1/20)