Angry residents in Lakeland Township, Minnesota recently packed a meeting after receiving a leaflet claiming the Prairie Island Indian Community in Welch planned to build a casino on land it purchased this summer. However, a casino has not been proposed for the property. The rumor was traced to the Pioneer Press.
Tribal spokeswoman Stacey Rammer stated, “The tribe does not have immediate or definitive plans for development. Future intentions are to continue providing for community needs.” Tribal Council President Shelley Buck said, “We must prepare for the likelihood that nuclear waste will never leave our ancestral homeland.” She added tribal leaders want to move homes to the site from Prairie Island.
The tribe bought the land as an alternative location to its Treasure Island Casino near the Prairie Island nuclear plant. That site along the Mississippi River is known to flood. In addition, an increasing amount of spent nuclear fuel is stored at the nuclear plant property, despite plans to eventually move it to another nuclear waste site.
Tribal leaders called the leaflet “racist,” according to the Pioneer Press. At the residents’ meeting the tribe’s officials declined to sign a pledge that they never would build a casino on the site, although they have applied for federal land-trust status—the first step in tribal casino development. That designation exempts Indian businesses from local zoning and tax laws. The entire process could take several years.
West Lakeland Township Supervisor Can Kyllo said, “It’s really too bad. It kind of embarrassed me. I was telling tribal leaders what a warm and welcoming community we are. I apologized to them about this.”
