Legislation | Openings & Closings

Sen. McCain claims authority on Tohono O'odham Nation casino bid

Monday, June 15, 2015

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) at the winter session of the National Congress of American Indians. February 28, 2006. Washington, DC

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona). File photo by Indianz.Com

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) continues to push for passage of a bill that prevents the Tohono O'odham Nation from using its trust land for a casino.

In 1986, Congress passed the Gila Bend Indian Reservation Lands Replacement Act to compensate the tribe for a reservation that was flooded by the federal government. McCain was a sponsor of the measure.

Two years later, Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The law, generally, bars gaming on land acquired after 1988 but Section 20 contains an exception for land claim settlements.

McCain also was a sponsor of IGRA. Yet he insists that Congress never thought tribes would open casinos in connection with land claims even though that's exactly what's happening with the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Ongoing construction on the West Valley Resort in Glendale, Arizona. Photo from Facebook

"As one of the authors of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and the Gila Bend Indian Reservation Replacement Lands Act, Senator McCain can authoritatively say that Congress did not envision Indian gaming on the kinds of lands involved in this issue," a spokesperson told Indian Country Today.

McCain at first stayed out of the dispute. During a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing last summer, he said he was worried that Congressional efforts to block the casino went against IGRA.

"The Tohono O'odham Tribe is one of the small number of tribes in the nation -- I believe one out of three -- that are using this IGRA exception but under a great deal of controversy and litigation," McCain said on July 23, 2014.

But now McCain is sponsoring S.152, the Keep the Promise Act. The bill doesn't mention any tribes by name but it bars Class II and Class III gaming on newly acquired trust lands in the Phoenix area -- a situation that only applies to the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Arizona Casino Wars: Tribes battle over new gaming facility in the Phoenix area

"Senator McCain voted to advance this bill out of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in April, and he will continue to support every effort to end this controversial off-reservation gaming issue," the spokesperson told ICT.

The Gila River Indian Community and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community are aggressively lobbing for passage of the bill. The two tribes operate five casinos on the southern and eastern sides of Phoenix.

The Tohono O'odham Nation already broke ground on the West Valley Resort near Glendale, a suburb on the western side of Phoenix. An initial structure is due to open by the end of the year.

Artist's rendering of the West Valley Resort in Glendale, Arizona. Image from Facebook

In the history of IGRA only two tribes -- the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma and the Seneca Nation of New York -- have opened casinos on land acquired in connection with land claim settlements. However, only the Wyandotte Nation's 7th Street Casino, in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, meets the land claim exception in Section 20 of the law.

The Seneca Nation has opened two casinos in connection with a land claim settlement. In that case, the Bush administration determined that Section 20 didn't come into play because the Seneca Nation Settlement Act of 1990 requires that the tribe's lands be placed in restricted fee -- rather than trust -- status.

Get the Story:
Promise Act Blatantly Breaks Promise to Tohono O’odham Nation (Indian Country Today 6/13)