The Timbisha Shoshone tribe is learning the casino approval process for putting land in Kern County in California’s Central Valley, into trust as it goes.
There isn’t a school for learning how to jump through the federal hoops, such as the environmental reviews that are required. Each tribe learns as it goes.
So, for example, the tribe, which is based in its main reservation in Death Valley, discovered that instead of a National Environmental Policy Act analysis, it needed a Tribal Environmental Impact Report. Tribal officials first referred to NEPA, but eventually switched to talking about TEIR as they learned more.
It is in the process of putting land in Ridgecrest into trust for a casino. The city council approved the land sale for $5.5 million in September. The tribe plans to build in phases. The first phase of $29 million will be for a 20,000-square foot casino with 349 slots, six gaming tables, a restaurant and buffet.
Tribal Chairman George Gholson last week told the Daily Independent: “The process is as new to the tribe as it is to anyone else,” he told the Daily Independent Tuesday. “Because we have never taken land into trust for gaming. We have never been this far.”
Last month Gholson signed a memorandum of understanding with the Secretary of the Interior. He also met with a representative of the governor’s office. His travel plans have also been impacted by the extremely wet weather this winter.
He says the tribe has made every effort to keep the city of Ridgecrest up to speed on all of the developments. “In the Tribes eyes the city is our partner and we don’t intend to hide from how things are progressing on the project,” he said.
Answering those who thought the tribe had been dishonest in mentioning NEPA first, Gholson said “At that time the Department of the Interior had indicated to us that we were going to go through a normal process that would have included a NEPA process.”
The Timbisha Shoshone Homeland Act of 2000 placed five non-continuous parcels of land into trust for the tribe to be set aside a homeland for the tribe. The 26.48-acre parcel in Ridgecrest is where the tribe wants to build its casino. Because the land transfer was pre-authorized by the Act of Congress it does not require a NEPA analysis, only a TEIR process.
Gholson told the city council “Under a TEIR we can set the parameters to meet the city’s need. Under [California Environmental Quality Act] and NEPA we can’t set parameters.” He added, “they are better off, because we can customize it exactly to meet the city’s needs.”
After Gholson’s presentation, the council voted to send a letter to Governor Brown’s office asking for a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) environmental review and one to the Secretary of the Interior asking that the tribe be required to follow NEPA.
Gholson said he wished the city would be more cooperative with his tribe. “What is that saying? You can attract more bees with honey than with vinegar. I would hope the city would work with us, rather than trying to force us, taking a Big Brother approach.” He added, “The last thing we want to do is make a mess out of where we want to have our business.”
Last June the city approved a municipal services agreement with the tribe, which agreed to pay $400,000 annually plus $128,000.
