The city council of Ridgecrest, California last week voted 3-2 to sell 24.6 acres to the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe of California for use as a casino.
The property is located near the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, which is 122 miles from the tribe’s reservation in Death Valley. As an off-reservation casino proposal it would require a two-part determination from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, including the ascent of California’s Governor Jerry Brown. An argument for that is that the tribe would find it very difficult to develop a casino in the middle of the Death Valley National Park.
The Ridgecrest Daily Independent quoted council Chairman George Gholson as saying, “We want safe, good entertainment. I felt safe at every Indian casino I have ever been at and that is what we want.”
The vote was controversial, and some members of the tribe in the audience said they caught a whiff of prejudice in the discussion.
Eleanor Jackson, a member of the Timbisha Shoshone tribe, commented right before the vote: I know the town talks to the city council about morals, what the morals of the city are,” she said. “But we have sat here for 5 1/2 to 6 months listening to insults from this city. There are some people who say ‘don’t take it personal, I am not talking about you’ but you are talking about our people.”
She said, “The first three months we came here, it was all about morals. The churches, the morals. To me, I don’t understand that. My mom was a preacher. She never taught us to treat people badly because you don’t like them.”
Jackson concluded, “We do belong here. We want to provide Ridgecrest with economic development.”
Mayor Pro Tem James Sanders, who voted against the proposal, explained his vote: “It was stated that this is just like any other business. I’ve said this before but I want to say it again. It is absolutely not like any other business. It is a casino that is illegal for anybody except for that race to own. I cannot own a casino. It is not like any other business. You cannot say that that is a free-market business. It is not.”
He insisted that racism did not factor into his vote.
“I think there is some misunderstanding there,” he said, “because I heard nothing today that has been against the tribe. Not one thing have I heard today. Quite honestly, I would love to do business with the tribe and my opposition up until now has had absolutely nothing to do with an Indian tribe. It’s a casino. And I think everybody who is against this idea of a casino coming to town—they have nothing against Indians. Nothing. It’s a casino. They just don’t want a casino in their town.”
According to the agreement, the tribe has an option to buy the land for $5.5 million while it pursues putting the land into trust.
