Opponents of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe’s proposed casino resort in La Center, Washington have filed an appeal to the 2014 decision by U.S. District Judge Barbara J. Rothstein dismissing their challenge to the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ decision to put 152 acres into trust.
The tribe had hoped to take the land into trust in December, but the appeal puts that off for the moment.
Opponents include the city of Vancouver, some of the state’s card rooms, and a tribe whose casino revenues would be impacted if the La Center casino is built: the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. The appeal is likely to go before a panel of federal judges sometime in 2015.
