The Scotts
Valley Band of Pomo Indians is seeking federal approval for a $700 million casino in California.
The tribe filed a land-into-trust application in August.
Plans call for a 400,000 square-foot casino with a hotel at a site near the intersection of Interstate 80 and Highway 37 in Vallejo, KPIX 5 reported.
“Our goal is to have a homeland for our tribe,” Vice Chair Crista Ray told the station. “Our tribe has been landless for 150 years, minimum.”
The tribe previously sought a casino in Richmond
but the Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected it in 2012. According to the agency, the tribe failed to demonstrate a connection to the site, which was about 103 miles from its headquarters.
The tribe hopes to avoid the same fate this time around. The Vallejo site is about 85 miles from its headquarters.
"You have people telling you where you’re from, who you are. And being a tribal person in California, it’s been that way for a long time and a lot of our history they we’re taught here isn’t correct," Ray told KPIX 5.
The tribe was restored to federal recognition in 1991. Typically, that means the
tribe can engage in gaming on newly acquired lands under an exception in
Section 20 of the Indian
Gaming Regulatory Act.
The Section 20
regulations that were finalized by the Bush administration in 2008 require
newly recognized tribes to demonstrate a modern connection, a historical
connection as well as a temporal connection to a proposed gaming site. To
qualify for the exception, a land-into-trust application must be submitted
within 25 years of recognition.
The Scotts Valley Band appears to be quickly
running up against that deadline -- 2016 marks the 25th year since restoration.
Read More on the Story:
Vallejo Leaders Surprised By Plans For Large Tribal Casino (KPIX 5 10/17)
Tribe seeks to build casino in Vallejo
(The Vallejo Times-Herald 10/13)
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