A bipartisan majority of 38 North Carolina state Senators recently sent the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee a letter opposing a $340 million casino in Kings Mountain proposed by the Catawba Indian Nation of South Carolina. U.S. Senators Lindsay Graham, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis of South Carolina co-sponsored S 790 in Congress allowing the casino. “The Catawba Nation has been treated unfairly by the federal government, and our legislation rights that wrong,” Graham said.
S 790 would help clarify Congress’ intent and the language of a 1993 law allowing it to acquire land in its North Carolina service area and authorize the Secretary of the Interior to take a 16-acre tract into trust for the Catawbas for casino gambling. The project would include a 220,000 square foot casino, two hotels with 750 rooms, a restaurant, entertainment outlets and retail stores. Analysts said the venue would create 4,000 jobs in a high-unemployment area, and have a regional economic impact of $350 million annually, generating $100 million in annual state revenue.
In 2013 Tillis, then North Carolina House speaker, was one of more than 100 state lawmakers who wrote to then-U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell opposing a Catawba casino.
The letter states, “This unprecedented legislation is a last-ditch effort to game the system on a flawed application. The bill would skirt the formal input process that has worked for decades and doesn’t allow input from the state or the people who live near the proposed site.” The letter also notes previous attempts to gain approval for the casino from the Bureau of Indian Affairs have failed.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who own the state’s only two casinos, oppose the Catawba proposal, claiming a new casino in Cleveland County would cannibalize Harrah’s business. Harrah’s Cherokee employs 5 percent of the far western counties’ workforce; it contributes more than half a billion dollars to the tribe’s annual budget, allowing twice-yearly per capita disbursements to tribe members. Eastern Band officials claim the proposed Catawba casino site would encroach on Cherokee aboriginal territory. They also said the Senate bill would bypass Indian Gaming Regulatory Act requirements.
Eastern Band Principal Chief Richard Sneed stated, “The Catawba bill is founded on horribly flawed policy that undermines the interests of state, county and Eastern Band governments. Opposition from elected officials in North Carolina should come as no surprise.”
Haywood County, Waynesville, Canton, Swain County, Bryson City, Jackson County, Sylva, Dillsboro, Webster, Forest Hills, Clay County, Hayesville, Graham County, Cherokee County, Andrews and Murphy all passed resolutions stating Harrah’s casinos’ importance to the regional economy and their opposition to the proposed legislation.
The Catawbas, however, suggested the opposition of North Carolina Senators could be related to years of campaign donations from the Eastern Band. Catawba Chief Bill Harris said, “The letter is one of several unfortunate maneuvers by the Cherokees to obstruct and hurt our tribe. The Catawba Indian Nation does not seek preferential treatment. Instead, we only seek to be treated fairly and equitably by the U.S. government as our Cherokee brothers and sisters are treated.”
