California Tribes Build on Federal Land

The gaming compacts negotiated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are now, for the very first time, being tested by the G.O. Committee.  Attorney Daniel Kolkey is the governor’s head gaming negotiator.  He will field questions pitched by senators about the deals.  Questions are likely to include whether the proposal remains true to the governor’s own proclamation on off-reservation gaming.

Due to the environmentally vulnerable ancestral land of the Big Lagoon band, they have, in the past, been forbidden from building casinos.  For the past six years they have been locked in intense legal battles with the state over the issue. 

Schwarzenegger’s solution was to allow the Big Lagoon to co-build a casino in Barstow with the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians.  This casino site is over one hundred miles away from any of these tribes’ ancestral lands.  The term coined by opponents of federal issuing of non-ancestral lands for the purpose of gaming is “reservation shopping.”

The current precedent in the California legislature has reused all proposals of Indian Casinos on non-tribal lands.  Indications from the Department of the Interior suggest that unless tribes have land in federal trust, the federal government most likely will not approve tribal compacts.  

The leaders of Barstow, tribal representatives, Attorney Kolkey, environmentalists, and state regulators will all be present at Tuesday’s G.O. Committee hearing.

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