The Bureau of Indian Affairs in February released a “scoping report” for a casino proposed by the Tejon Indian Tribe for 306 acres of farmland south of Bakersfield, California.
The 944-member Tejon tribe based in Kern County was granted federal status in 2012 after the federal government admitted that it dropped the tribe from the list of recognized tribes due to an administrative error.
The report identified potential environmental impacts posed by the casino project. The report will be used in the next step, a draft environmental impact statement, which would be used by the Department of the Interior to decide if the tribe can build the casino. The DEIS could be finished by the end of the year, once a short public comment period is over.
So far the scoping report has received 164 letters of comment, including a statement signed by 135 person opposing the casino for environmental reasons. The Kern County Board of Supervisors in 2015 approved a resolution expressing concern about a possible casino.
Currently, although the tribe owns land where it hopes to build a casino, none of the land is sovereign tribal land. That is something that the process that began with the scoping report is designed to change.
The proposed casino would have 165,000 square feet of gaming space, dining and a hotel with 400 rooms. The land would also be used for farming, residential units, a park and tribal administration building.
