The North Fork Mono Rancheria Indians of California seek to be the second tribe in the state to get a federally imposed Indian gaming compact. They are suing in federal court to get it.
Such compacts are extremely rare, but the North Fork tribe’s options are limited since the state’s voters in November overturned the tribal state gaming compact that Governor Jerry Brown signed in 2012 and the legislature ratified in 2013.
The compact was controversial because it was the result of an off reservation land into trust process. The tribe, based near Yosemite, contends that its reservation is too remote to support a casino. It asked for, and got 305 acres put into trust near Madera, much more on the beaten path, along Highway 99.
The tribe wants the court to support a federally mandated compact, with both parties forced to submit proposals, and a court appointed mediator choosing between them. That has happened once before in California, when a compact was imposed for the Rincon tribe, after it won a court case against the state where the court ruled that then Governor ArnoldSchwarzenegger acted in bad faith.
The North Fork tribe seeks a similar ruling, contending that the state acted in bad faith because the voters overturned the governor’s negotiated compact.
Gaming law experts note that once land is put into trust, the state is legally required to negotiate a compact. But the fact that the voters intervened may negate that required, according to some legal authorities. The California attorney general’s office takes the position that the vote negated the previous compact.
For a decade the tribe has sought to build a casino with 2,000 slots and 40 table games, along with a hotel.
Stand Up California, the casino watchdog group that organized the statewide campaign that led to Proposition 48, and to the defeat of the compact, says it is considering trying to intervene in the case. One of the primary strategies it used in convincing voters to oppose Prop. 48 was the fear of “reservation shopping,” and that if North Fork was allowed to do it, other tribes would try.
Without being forced the state is unlikely to sit down with the tribe again. One of Governor Brown’s senior aides recently commented to the Fresno Bee, “Californians voted overwhelmingly to reject Proposition 48 and thereby disapprove that compact. Given that the people have spoken, entering into negotiations for a new compact for gaming on the Madera parcel would be futile.”
Some people are suspicious that Governor Brown may have adopted this stance to maneuver the federal government into forcing a compact, because then it would be up to the Department of the Interior.
Gaming law expert I. Nelson Rose predicts years of litigation no matter what. “It doesn’t matter because somebody will then sue their opponents on the grounds that this act of Congress is overruling the people of California. Now, you are ending up with a case that could end up at the U.S. Supreme Court,” he told the Bee.
