Openings & Closings | Opinion

Editorial: Bay Mills off-reservation casino sets a bad precedent

Friday, December 10, 2010

"In a move that stretches the idea of tribal landholdings beyond recognition, the Bay Mills Indian Community has put 38 slot machines in a building in Vanderbilt. The tribe intends to double the number of machines to 76 next month at the new casino, which is about 50 miles south of the Mackinac Bridge along I-75.

Michiganders have tended to be agreeable to Native American casinos on reservations, but the Vanderbilt site doesn't fit the bill. And the longer the State of Michigan turns a blind eye, the more entrenched the casino -- and the tribe's bold attempt to set precedent -- will become.

Bay Mills officials could not be reached for comment, but the tribe's logic seems to be that money from a settlement made with the U.S. government is being used, as the language of the settlement provides, for "consolidation and enhancement of tribal landholdings" -- in a place more than a hundred miles from the tribe's primary reservation near Sault Ste. Marie.

The next "enhancement" presumably would be in Port Huron, a location where Bay Mills has long had an interest and also owns land. The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians has a share of the same settlement and might employ the same reasoning in New Boston, just south of Romulus, where it recently bought land."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Bad precedent for tribal casinos (The Detroit Free Press 12/10)