The Tule River Tribe owns and operates the Eagle Mountain Casino in Porterville, California. Photo: Tamara Evans

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Tule River Tribe continues long push to relocate casino

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

The Tule River Tribe continues to make strides toward moving its casino to a new location in California.

The tribe just entered into a memorandum of understanding and intergovernmental agreement with Tulare County. The government-to-government documents were approved by the board of supervisors on January 7, The Sun-Gazette reported.

The development comes after the Trump administration gave its blessing to the tribe. Plans call for the Eagle Mountain Casino to be moved to a more accessible 40-acre site near the Porterville Airport Industrial Park.

Moving the casino "would be in the best interest of the tribe and not detrimental to the surrounding community," Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney, the Trump official who oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, told members of the National Congress of American Indians during the organization's 76th annual convention last October.

Indianz.Com on SoundCloud: Tara Sweeney | National Congress of American Indians | 2019

But Sweeney's decision isn't the end of the story. Under the two-part determination provisions of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) must also approve the project, which has been in the works for more than a decade.

"I sent the secretarial determination over to Gov. Newsom for his concurrence," Sweeney said at NCAI.

"A decision to acquire the approximately 40-acre parcel into federal trust will be made at a later date -- when Gov. Newsom concurs with the secretarial determination," Sweeney added.

Newsom hasn't said whether he will approve the two-part determination. But the approval of the new agreements bolsters the tribe's case, given that the county and the city of Porterville support the effort.

“The Tribe is looking forward to the relocation of the Eagle Mountain Casino and intends to continue its long-standing history of investing in the local community,” Chairman Neil Peyron said in a press release. “Securing the support of the County through this MOU will hopefully help fast track the approval of our project.”

In the 31-year history of IGRA, only a handful of tribes have secured approval to open a casino under the two-part determination provisions of the law. Two are in California, where the Estom Yumeka Maidu Tribe of the Enterprise Rancheria just opened the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sacramento at Fire Mountain last October following years of controversy and litigation.

The North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians won the second two-part determination approval. Litigation and controversy have kept the tribe's project from moving forward.