Idaho’s Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation are calling on the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the state government to reject the proposal by the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe to build a casino in Mountain Home in Treasure Valley, the BoiseDev reported May 27.
Both tribes are interested in land in Elmore County, but the Shoshone-Paiute have no casino at all, while the Shoshone-Bannock have three. The Shoshone-Bannock propose a $311 million, 500,000-square-foot casino on 157 acres the tribe bought four years ago.
Because the proposed casino would be off of its reservation, that brings a provision of the Indian Game Regulatory Act that requires the approval not only of the federal government, but of Idaho Gov.Brad Little and the city of Mountain Home into play.
The tribe has chosen the design firm of JCJ Architecture.
The opposition by the Shoshone-Paiute tribe has been continuous for several years, with Chairman Brian Mason calling the application “a bridge too far.” He invited the Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, who oversees the BIA, to visit the site before deciding.
He wrote, “By allowing the Sho-Ban Tribes to situate itself in our homelands and with our best neighbor [Mountain Home], to the exclusion of the Sho-Pai Tribes, you will be relegating the Sho-Pai People to continued poverty.”
The status of the tribe’s application is unknown and the BIA did not respond to inquiries.
The Shoshone-Paiute told BoiseDev they are looking at property in Elmore County and have submitted a letter to the BIA stating their desire to build a casino there—but no formal application as yet.
