"For decades, the Sycuan Indian reservation in eastern San Diego County was just a rugged little patch of a place. At less than 700 acres in the rural Dehesa Valley, it was one of San Diego’s smallest reservations. But in the last decade, the Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians has used profits from its successful casino to buy about 2,000 acres of land surrounding the reservation.

Now it’s asking the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to designate roughly 1,300 of those acres as reservation land - nearly tripling the reservation’s size and making that land sovereign Indian territory.

The effort has stirred some opposition in the surrounding community, because once that land becomes part of the reservation, it’s no longer subject to local taxes, laws or building restrictions.

The planning group has opposed it, as has San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who represents a vast swath of East County that includes most of San Diego County's 18 reservations."

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Indian Tribes Use Casino Profits To Buy Real Estate (Fronteras 3/7)