The Barstow, California city council voted last week to approve an agreement between the city and the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians, a tribe more than a hundred miles away, for a casino in the city.
The tribe wants to build a $160 million casino and resort in the city. The city would provide municipal services under the agreement’s terms.
City Manager Curt Mitchell told the council “The Bureau of Indian Affairs asked the Los Coyotes tribe to update their environmental documentation. They have done so. The bureau is now reviewing everything.”
The proposal is a so-called “two part determination,” because the tribe wants to acquire 23 acres off the reservation and place it into trust. It proposes a casino, hotel, parking and other facilities.
The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, which has a casino in the area, opposes the proposal. The tribe’s public information officer Jacob Coin commented after the meeting: “Our concern, all along, these lands in this region are within the aboriginal and historical territories of the Serrano Indians and San Manuel is one of the clans. That is our only concern with this. Our policy for decades has been we support fully the right of tribes to reclaim as much aboriginal territories as possible.”
