U.S. Senator John McCain, who helped write the law that governs Indian gaming, is leading the charge in the Senate to pass a law recently adopted by the House that would prevent the Tohono O’odham tribe from building a casino adjacent to the city of Glendale, Arizona.
The practice of buying land far from a tribe’s original reservation and putting the land into trust for a casino is known by the pejorative “reservation shopping.”
The bill the House passed and McCain and fellow Arizona Senator Jeff Flake is pushing is called Keep the Promise Act.
Besides trying to stop the Glendale Casino, McCain has also authored a bill that would stop any tribe from putting land into trust very far from its original homeland.
McCain and California Senator Dianne Feinstein are both critics of the practice. Besides wanting to stop the Glendale Casino, McCain recently held Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn’s feet to the fire when the secretary appeared before his committee to defend the Tohonos.
When Washburn told McCain, “Senator, it was your bill. You wrote the language. We’re just applying it,” McCain retorted, “You know something, Mr. Washburn? That’s a pretty smartass answer and the fact is I’m telling you what the intent was, OK? Now, we wrote the bill, and we wrote it so that there would not be exactly what has happened now and if you want to interpret it that way, fine.”
The senator continued, “I interpret it as not ever intending to have a gaming operation in the middle of an incorporated area without the permission of the people, not only in Glendale, because as you said this is a large metropolitan area, but the people of the metropolitan area. They should have a say in this. You’re not giving them a say in this.”
Washburn noted that the federal government has broken many treaties with tribes, and said, “The only way the federal government can keep its promise to the Tohono O’odham is for your committee to reject this bill.”
During the same hearing, Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers asked lawmakers to stop the Glendale casino. He said if they don’t that it would start the dominoes falling.
“My city may not be the last,” Weiers said at the hearing. “Our sister cities understand that, unless Congress acts, they may be next.”
Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris Jr., criticized the bill. “If enacted, this legislation will effect a profound injustice upon the Tohono O’odham Nation, one that will besmirch the United States’ honor and set a terrible precedent for its relationship with Indian Country,” he said.
He cited the 1986 Gila Bend Indian Reservation Lands Replacement Act that gave the tribe money to replace the 10,000 it lost due the inundation caused by a federal dam project.
Meanwhile, another potential roadblock to the Tohono O’odham Nation’s Glendale casino has been removed, as City Clerk Pam Hanna rejected two referendums filed by opposition groups. Hanna said the subject matter of the referendums is administrative, not legislative, therefore, they cannot be placed on the November ballot.
The tribe does not need the city’s approval to build the casino on 54 acres of reservation land at Loop 101 and Northern Avenue.
The groups, No More Bad Deals for Glendale and Respect the Promise, had submitted an estimated 15,000 signatures on each of the two measures , that would have let voters have a say on agreements the city council made with the Tohono O’Odham tribe. Referendum measures require 6,956 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
The city-tribe agreement will give Glendale $26 million over 20 years in exchange for the city’s support of the project. The referendum would have nullified that agreement. Opposition leader Gary Hirsch said, “It’s clear that Glendale’s leadership is determined to ignore the will of the people.” Hirsch said opponents will consider filing a lawsuit regarding the issue.
City records show this summer the Gila River Indian Community, which also opposes the casino, donated $214,943 to Neighbors for a Better Glendale, a community group affiliated with the referendum groups.
