An Oregon tribe’s proposal to build an off-reservation casino in an old bowling alley next to a nine-hole golf course is generating a white-hot response from fellow tribes in the Beaver State and neighboring California, the Los Angeles Times reported April 9.
It has resurrected an old debate as to what a tribe can legitimately call “home” for purposes of putting into trust for a reservation.
The 1,200-member Coquille Indian Tribe, whose reservation is near Coos Bay on the coast of Oregon, wants to build a second casino 50 miles north in Medford, in the Rogue Valley. The land is 165 miles from its current reservation, where the tribe currently operates the Mill Casino in North Bend.
The Karuk Tribe of Siskiyou and Humboldt counties in northern California, which operates Rain Rock Casino, is opposed. The tribe is still paying off $70 million it borrowed to build the casino, and believes the proposed casino will cut into profits. Once the tribe pays off its debt, it will use future profits for healthcare, education and housing for members.
Karuk Tribal Chairman Russell “Buster” Attebery told the Times: “We would be affected the most with the casino that’s going in there.”
The federal government took the Coquille tribe’s one million acres in the 19th century and then in 1989 agreed to return about 1,000 acres to put into trust, with the service area including five counties. Tribal members are spread across Oregon and other states.
Although Medford isn’t part of the tribe’s reservation, it notes that it is part of the five-county “service area,” and that many tribal members live there. Coquille Chairwoman Brenda Meade told the Times: “It’s about taking care of our people. It’s about us expressing our sovereignty and exercising our sovereignty to make decisions for what’s best for our people.”
Although federal regulations do allow for “off-reservation” casinos, it is an onerous, convoluted process that doesn’t happen often.
Opponents of the Medford casino also include California’s Elk Valley Rancheria in Crescent City and the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation in Smith River, as well as Oregon’s Klamath Tribes in Klamath County and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians in Roseburg.
Cow Creek Band Chairman Carla Keene told the Times: “This is not a fight that we ever wanted. We’re in opposition because it’s threatening our tribes, our people and the livelihoods of our tribal citizens.” Her tribe operates the Carla Seven Feathers Casino Resort in Canyonville, 70 miles from Medford.
The bowling alley where the Coquilles want to put a second casino is adjacent to a golf course and Margaritaville-themed hotel. The tribe is proposing a Class II casino with bingo-style games.
Some members of the city government support the proposal, noting that it’s a financially-depressed area, and that the tribe would pay the city $60,000 a year and give a transfusion to the local economy.
The proposal, first floated in 2012, was rejected by the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the Trump administration, with one of the main objections being the distance between Medford and the reservation. The tribe decided to throw the dice again with the Biden administration, which has been more sympathetic to off-reservation proposals.
Moreover, the Coquille claim that the Rogue Valley in historical times was a “rendezvous point” for many tribes, including theirs.
