Two Northern California tribes just entering the gaming industry took two different directions in their quest.
The Karuk Tribe planned to hold the ground breaking for its $30 million Rain Rock Casino near the Northern California town of Yreka on July 29, although earthmovers have been at work since early June.
Construction is expected to take about a year for the first phase, which includes 36,000 square foot casino, planned for 500 slot machines, eight table games, a restaurant and parking. The second phase would add 20,000 SF of gaming, 300 slots and eight more tables.
The tribe has been working on getting permission to build a casino since 2004. Governor Jerry Brown signed a tribal state gaming compact with the tribe in 2013. That compact requires a government-to-government agreement between the tribe and the City of Yreka and Siskiyou County. The agreement with the county required arbitration, which last year accepted the county’s offer rather than the tribes.
The agreement requires the tribe to pay $441,090 for wastewater capacity during the first phase and $118,755 during the second phase. It will also pay $132,000 for improvements that will allow it to connect to the city’s wastewater system.
The 3,700-member tribe also committed to buy the city a police cruiser and replace it every four years, plus $95,000 annual to fund a full time police officer. It will pay another $25,000 each year for fire impacts.
The county and tribe had disagreed over how to compensate the county for casino mitigation. Since the county’s plan was chosen, the tribe must either pay $149,480 in lieu of taxes per year, or $37,000 per quarter.
Buster Attebery, chairman of the Karuk Tribal Council told the Siskiyou Daily News, “We see this project as a major economic driver for generations to come.”
And the Estom Yumeka Maidu tribe of Enterprise Rancheria of Northern California has stopped construction on its $186 million Fire Mountain Resort and Casino three months after breaking ground due to what it describes as “delay and obstruct” tactics by neighboring gaming tribes, including the Colusa Casino and Thunder Valley Casino Resort and anti-casino groups.
The Enterprise Rancheria seeks to build an off-reservation casino near Marysville but 35 miles from its reservation.
Glenda Nelson, Enterprise tribal chairman, said the tribe plans to restart the project. “Special interests have obstructed progress and stopped us for now from investing tens of millions more into this project and community,” she said.
Thunder Valley, whose casino is 18 miles from the construction site, has accused its rival of “reservation shopping,” a pejorative that means finding land for a casino by virtue of its ability to attract customers, rather than because of its historical connection to a tribe.
Doug Elmets, spokesman for the United Auburn Indian Community, which operates Thunder Valley, said last week, “This is not only not playing by the rules, it is an affront to tribes throughout the state of California who have located their casinos on land that in some instances is not particularly commercially viable.”
Enterprise Rancheria spokesman Charles Altekruse spelled out further that the tribe is waiting for a decision from a federal judge that will determine if it offers Class II or Class III gaming.
He told the Appeal Democrat, “We’re committed to building something, but we’re close enough to the junction point, and there’s a big enough delta in what you’re going to spend to design and build it, that we’re going to wait.”
Although U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley rejected challenges by the Auburn and Wintun Indians last fall, the Wintun’s filed a motion to reconsider the ruling. Nunley also ruled in favor of the Enterprise Rancheria in February over the tribe’s compact with the state, ordering the legislature to approve of a new compact. However the legislature failed to do so, which forced the matter of the compact back to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Enterprise Chairman Glenda Nelson indicated her level of frustration last week when she noted that the tribe has fought for 15 years to open a casino. “Enough is enough,” she said. “I am so fed up with the delays.”
The tribe accuses the opponents of flooding the federal courts with lawsuits they know they will use in order to delay the project, which is being financed by Florida land developer Alan Ginsburg and Illinois-based Gerald Forsythe.
Nelson is offended by the accusations of “reservation shopping.” The tribe purchased the land with $40 million that was awarded it as part of a land settlement after its original homeland was inundated by the waters created by the Oroville Dam.
