Governor Kate Brown last week formally announced her opposition to the Coquille Indian Tribe’s plans to develop a second casino, a class II gaming facility, in Medford.
The tribe seeks to convert an old bowling alley, the Roxy Ann Lanes and a defunct restaurant on 2.42 acres into a slots casino. The tribe currently operates a Class III casino in North Bend, the Mill Casino.
Brown sent a letter of opposition to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The governor cited concerns about proliferation of gaming in the state.
She wrote, “I do not believe that an expansion in the number of casinos sited in Oregon is in the best interests of the State or her people,” adding “I know that this project is relatively modest in scale … But I believe that the State should as a matter of policy resist the building of additional casinos, because State support for even a single, modest, additional casino is likely to lead to significant efforts to expand gaming across Oregon to the detriment of the public welfare.”
The governor did not mention a previous governor’s “one casino per tribe” policy, but only spoke about the need to limit Indian casinos.
The tribe believes the “one casino per tribe” policy is unrealistic. Especially since two other tribes have already opened second casinos.
Tribal Chairman Brenda Meade expressed displeasure at the governor’s announcement.
“We expected her to stay neutral,” said Meade’s statement. “She understands what economic development means, but there hasn’t been a single page of analysis from the Department of the Interior released. This is a very long federal process, and we wanted the analysis done to see how it would affect services, traffic and interested parties.”
Meade added, “I don’t think any governor has opposed a Class II casino,” adding that she felt her tribe was being singled out. The tribe was recognized in the
1989 Coquille Restoration Act, which defined the tribal area as five counties in Southern Oregon. This includes Jackson County, where the proposed casino the Cedars at Bear Creek, would be located.
Former Governor John Kitzhaber, Brown’s immediate predecessor, long pursued a policy of requiring tribes to agree to one casino in their state tribal gaming compacts. However, this is only a policy and not a law.
Moreover, class II casinos do not require compacts.
In their compacts the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde Community of Oregon and Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians all agreed to operate one casino apiece. Other tribes do not limit the number of casinos in their compacts.
However the Coquille Indian Tribe’s compact, signed in 2000, limited itself to only five years without seeking a second casino: “Nothing in this compact shall be deemed to affect the operation by the tribe of any Class II gaming as defined in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act,” says the compact.
Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, which opposes the Coquille facility, praised Brown’s letter of opposition. Cow Creek spokesman Susan Ferris declared,
“Basically, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act specifically says that tribes must put casinos on ancestor land,” Ferris said. “It was a way so tribes didn’t just put casinos everywhere.” She added, “What happened with the Coquille, Medford is not their ancestral area and it’s in violation of IGRA. They’re using restored lands as an argument to siting gaming on land that is not.”
Five counties in Oregon are identified as part of the Coquille tribe’s area that it can operate casinos. That includes Jackson County,
The tribe is waiting for the BIA to issue a draft environmental impact statement on the proposal.
Meanwhile, in an escalation of he war of words between tribe and state, the tribe is calling out the Oregon Lottery for promoting video games with campaign whose theme is the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Meade called this campaign “painfully insensitive,” because it leaves out the contribution of Native Americans because in the fictional campaign the famous explorers discover video lottery machines in the trees.
She said this is the first time the tribe had a problem with the lottery’s advertising campaign, since, up to this time, they used “pirates and things like that.”
