The board of supervisors of Shasta County, California, have voted unanimously to oppose the relocation of the Redding Rancheria’s Win-River Casino and Resort to land it purchased called Strawberry Fields just off Interstate 5.
The vote follows a similar vote by the city of Redding in August. As the board was preparing to take the vote, about 100 members of the audience wearing red T-shirts that said “Support the Tribe” rose and left in the middle of a statement by Chairman Leonard Moty, who had been commending them for their civility.
Neither the county nor the city will have the last word on this issue, although both have written letters to the Secretary of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). That decision belongs to the BIA, which will decide whether to put land in the Strawberry Fields into trust for the tribe. In its letter, the board of supervisors declared that the casino relocation would “have a detrimental impact on the Shasta County community that cannot be adequately mitigated,” destroy a 232-acre greenbelt area, remove it from county tax rolls and promote “urban sprawl.”
The city of Redding has written the tribe offering to help find “alternative locations that will not result in detrimental impacts to the city and its residents.”
At the annual Redding Rancheria Stillwater Pow Wow, the tribe began collecting signatures to a “letter of support” for the casino relocation. They collected about 1,000 signatures the first day of the Pow Wow and handed out 500 red T-shirts with “Support the Tribe” stenciled on them.
Several days after the Shasta board’s vote, Tribal Chairman Jack Potter told the Redding Record Searchlight he had been “inundated with calls,” of support for the tribe and opposing the board. “They feel like their elected officials made the wrong judgement and they are wanting to help in any way,” he said.
