Stanley Speaks, regional director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, recently signed the final official documents taking into trust 152 acres near La Center in Clark County, Washington on behalf of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. The action gives the tribe its first reservation—and the opportunity to build a casino. The tribe was federally recognized in 2000, and the land was owned by tribal interests.
Tribal Chairman Bill Iyal said, “After 160 years of longing for a reservation within our aboriginal lands, I welcome all Cowlitz people to come home. We are no longer a landless tribe. The Cowlitz reservation offers new opportunities in our aboriginal land and the community which the tribe will deliver for generations to come.”
Iyal said the tribe plans to build a 134,000 square foot casino with a 250-room hotel, restaurants and retail. The first phase will create 3,000 construction jobs for 18 to 24 months, and provide about 1,500 permanent jobs when completed. “The local labor groups have been waiting for this as long as we have,” Iyall said.
Despite the BIA’s land-trust action, a pending lawsuit wants to stop the proposed casino. Filed in 2010 after the BIA approved the tribe’s application, the lawsuit claimed the Cowlitz Tribe has no historical ties to the area west of Interstate 5, and with tribal Longview headquarters 24 miles north of the site, plaintiffs said the tribe wants its reservation located close to Portland. Plaintiffs included the city of Vancouver; Clark County; the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde; nearby property owners Al Alexanderson and Greg and Susan Gilbert; Citizens Against Reservation Shopping; and Oregon Dragonslayer Inc. and Michels Development, operators of La Center cardrooms.
Last December, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara J. Rothstein dismissed the lawsuit and reaffirmed the federal government’s decision to take the land into trust for the Cowlitz Tribe. Rothstein said the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 gives the Secretary of the Interior the authority to take land into trust for a reservation. She also rejected plaintiffs’ claims that casino plans inadequately mitigate stormwater, traffic, light and noise issues and that a supplemental environmental impact study is necessary. In addition, Rothstein said she considered the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2009 Carcieri ruling—which said the government can take land into trust only for tribes recognized prior to 1934—ambiguous, and would defer to the Interior secretary.
The Clark County and Grand Ronde plaintiffs are appealing Rothstein’s ruling. Vancouver Assistant City Attorney Brent Boger noted the Interior Department said if the plaintiffs win their appeal, the taking of the land into trust could be undone. “Our position is Rothstein’s ruling flies in the face of Carcieri and other precedents, and the statute isn’t ambiguous,” Boger said.
