A bill sponsored by Rep. Doug LaMalfa aims to stop the North Fork Mono Indians from building a casino near Madera, in central California. The bill H.R. 5079, called the California Compact Protection Act, is backed by the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians, whose Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino near Coarsegold is a few miles from Madera.
On April the bill was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. The bill would tie the approval of off-reservation casinos in California to state law. It would stipulate that such a casino must have the approval of the legislature and cannot have been rejected by referendum of state voters.
The bill is aimed at the North Fork tribe, whose compact with the state was rejected two years ago by the voters, only to be revived by a federal judge who ruled that the legislature had acted in “bad faith” by not opening new compact negotiations with the tribe after the voters rejected the first compact.
It also addresses similar cases of federal judges interposing themselves between off-reservation casinos and the legislature.
Early in 2016 U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley ordered the state of California to negotiate a new compact with the Estom Yumeka Maidu Tribe of the Enterprise Rancheria after lawmakers allowed the compact negotiated with the tribe to expire without a vote.
In another instance U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii last November ordered the state to negotiate a compact with the North Fork Rancheria, although voters in Proposition 48 by a large majority rejected a compact the state had negotiated in 2014 with the tribe.
The North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians and the Enterprise Rancheria in 2012 became the first tribes in California to achieve the “two-part” determination of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act that allows off-reservation casinos, as long as the state governor agrees.
At that point rival tribes financed a campaign to challenge those compacts with a state initiative. Beaten at the ballot box, the tribes resorted to the courts, where they won. Now the game has moved into the House of Representatives.
LaMalfa’s bill is supported by a bipartisan group that includes Raul Ruiz, Jeff Denham and Paul Cook, who are all members of the Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs for the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Enterprise Rancheria Chairwoman Glenda Nelson blasted the bill last week, telling the Appeal-Democrat, “Under the disingenuous banner of ‘protecting compacts and tribes,’ this bill does neither — except perhaps protect the interests of a few rich gaming tribes who have long enjoyed the benefits of gaming and are now using this shameful 11th-hour attempt to stop competition by our tribe that has worked for more than a decade to comply with every requirement of federal law.”
The Enterprise Rancheria hasn’t allowed the opposition to prevent it from breaking ground on its $170 million Fire Mountain Casino in March. Because its status as a Class III casino is still in dispute, the tribe will open a Class II facility, which does not require a compact.
Enterprise Chairman Maryann McGovran is appalled at the idea of legislatures having a say in whether an Indian casino can open. She told the Fresno Bee recently, Every tribal leader across the nation should be deeply concerned about the principle being suggested by this effort, namely allowing the legislatures and citizens of all 50 states to weigh in on tribal rights, application of laws differently among tribes and that established federal gaming law … should be jeopardized to protect a few tribes from potential competition.”
Previous efforts to rein in off-reservation casino approvals have been tried unsuccessfully by Senator Diane Feinstein, one of California’s two U.S. Senators. In 2006 Rep. Richard Pombo of California introduced a bill called the Restricting Indian Gaming to Homelands of Tribes Act (RIGHT) Act. It failed to gain enough votes.
LaMalfa says that the bill would “preserve the tribal-state compact process authorized by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and ensure that all tribes are on a level playing field.” The bill itself says, “The tribal-state gaming compact process in California is undermined … when the compact for gaming on that land was not ratified by the state Legislature or was rejected by a constitutionally called referendum.”
