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Online Blackjack News - Indian Tribes Still Lack Compact for Casinos
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An eleventh-hour media campaign launched by the Big Lagoon Rancheria tribe of Humboldt County and the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians in San Diego County to try to sway legislators to ratify the compacts was unsuccessful.
The legislative session ended Sept. 12 without ratification. "The governor was disappointed the Legislature convened without ratifying these compacts," said Sabrina Lockhart, spokeswoman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both tribes are pushing to build a joint casino project - Barstow Casinos & Resort - in the city of Barstow.
The project has been received with open arms by the city and is supported by the governor and environmental groups. But after two years of waiting and compacts still not ratified, the tribes may wind up going their separate ways. Big Lagoon chairman Virgil Moorehead sent a letter this week to Schwarzenegger with a request to negotiate a compact so it can possibly build a casino or other facility on its reservation, said Jason Barnett, a spokesman for the tribe.
"We hope to hear from the governor's office soon on that. Meanwhile, Big Lagoon is keeping all its options open," said Barnett, adding that the tribe is not giving up on the proposed Barstow project. If the governor were to come to us with a creative solution he felt would get approved by the legislature for Barstow, the tribe would certainly be open to it."
Schwarzenegger and environmental groups are pushing for the Barstow casino project to become a reality for the tribes because it would mean Big Lagoon would not build on its ecologically sensitive reservation.
The 20-plus acre Big Lagoon Rancheria reservation sits on the Northern California coast and supports the largest estuary in the state. It provides habitat to many endangered plant and animal species.
"These agreements are a creative solution for avoiding the construction of a casino on California's coast and alongside a state ecological preserve," Schwarzenegger said at the time the compacts were negotiated in September 2005.
But efforts by Big Lagoon and Los Coyotes have been met with fierce opposition by other wealthy gaming tribes, primarily the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians near Highland who argue that neither Big Lagoon nor Los Coyotes have ancestral ties to the Barstow area and therefore shouldn't be allowed to build a casino there.
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| Source:
Blackjack2002 News Staff
| Saturday, 29 September 2007 |
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