The Catawba Indians of South Carolina last week received approval of the U.S. Department of Interior to take land into trust in Cleveland County, North Carolina, about 30 miles from Charlotte. The tribe has contended that its ancestral lands extend into North Carolina and the federal government has apparently agreed.
Catawba Chief William Harris says that the decision is “righting a wrong” and that “We have now regained what once belonged to us.”
The decision puts 17 acres of land in Kings Mountain into trust and will allow the tribe to build a casino resort on the property.
The decision hasn’t been accepted by North Carolina’s only federally recognized tribes, the Eastern Band of Cherokees, which operates two casino resorts in the state, both more remote than the proposed Catawba casino.
“The federal government has no right or authority to create a new reservation for the Catawba Nation across state lines, into Cherokee historical territory, just to build a casino,” Cherokee Chief Richard Sneed said in a statement. “This decision creates a dangerous precedent for all federally recognized tribes.”
The Catawbas became a federally recognized tribe in 1993 when they dropped claims on other lands around their 700-acre reservation in York County, South Carolina. They also pledged that they would conduct no gaming on the South Carolina land. In addition, the 1993 decision granted seven North Carolina counties, including Cleveland, as “service areas” for the tribe, so member could apply for federal benefits even though they don’t live on the specific reservation.
The tribe’s claims to North Carolina’s land has some substance. Harris says the tribe has roamed the Carolina’s for 10,000 years and even helped Americans defeat the British at Kings Mountain in the Revolutionary War.
The Catawbas plan to build a $273 million casino at Kings Mountain, funded by unnamed investors, but operated by Delaware North.
Efforts to stop the project by state lawmakers will continue, as the urge their U.S. senators to pass a bill that would make it more difficult for the Catawbas to arrange a compact with the state. But South Carolina Governor Roy Cooper isn’t backing that effort because it reduces the role of the governor in negotiating such a compact.
And U.S. Senator Richard Burr believes the decision is the “right call.”
“Congress always intended for the Catawba Tribe to be able to take land into trust in North Carolina, where they have deep, historic ties,” he said in a statement. “I hope this decision will finally allow the Catawbas to move closer toward their goal of creating jobs and economic development in Kings Mountain with state and local support.
