Regardless of personal opinions about the proposed casino on
Highway 25 near the Santa Clara county line, a sobering message was
delivered at Thursday’s public meeting: counties are better off
focusing their efforts on influencing casino proposals than
completely opposing them.
Regardless of personal opinions about the proposed casino on Highway 25 near the Santa Clara county line, a sobering message was delivered at Thursday’s public meeting: counties are better off focusing their efforts on influencing casino proposals than completely opposing them.
At least that was the advice given by supervisors from counties that have already experienced the rise of Indian gaming in their communities.
The San Benito County Board of Supervisors invited Yolo County Supervisor Mike McGowan, Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown and Sonoma County legal counsel Steven Woodside to discuss and answer questions about the effects of Indian casinos their areas. Their presentation displayed a frightening loss of local control when the federally authorized sovereign nations moved into their counties.
Their advice: Try to work with them, because you really can’t work against them. Regardless of how fierce the opposition may be, the visiting supervisors said, it made little difference.
Through negotiations, the visiting supervisors said some, though not all, of their communities’ concerns were addressed, and at least one tribe was convinced to move the casino project to a more environmentally acceptable location. The counties that worked with the tribes were sometimes able to create memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with the tribes that at least partially mitigated their impacts. Other counties that staunchly opposed the casinos were powerless to stop them, and the tribes provided no support to local governments because they are not required to do so, the supervisors said.
Likewise, the California Valley Miwok Tribe appears to be interested in negotiating as well, according to a letter to the San Benito County Board of Supervisors dated Oct. 20. In the letter they state, “But we do plan to involve the public at every stage so that, working together, we can gain widespread support for a project that will benefit all of the community.”
There was one ray of hope that shined through the visitors’ message. They said federally recognized tribes with sovereign land were near impossible to stop in their casino endeavors, but tribes that are “reservation shopping” – looking to buy reservation land in an area where they have no ancestral ties – could be contested and possibly defeated.
All in all it was a frustrating glimpse at what may be San Benito County’s reality when it comes to the invasion of Indian gaming, but an apparently accurate portrayal of federal Indian laws trumping local control. Certainly it was a difficult message to swallow, but an important warning to heed.
