The 3,000-member Spokane Tribe of Washington State has waited a while for economic development.
In the 1930s the flooding caused by the building of the Grand Coulee Dam destroyed its reservation and the salmon grounds the tribe had relied on for generations. The tribe turned to uranium mining, something that turned out badly, creating a Superfund site and many members with radiation sickness.
In 1998 the federal government approved of an off-reservation casino for the 450-member Kalispel tribe in the midst of land that the Spokane tribe has long considered its traditional homeland. This caused the remotely located casinos operated by the Spokane tribe to decline in revenues.
In June the Bureau of Indian Affairs approved of allowing the Spokane tribe to build a $400 million casino near Spokane. Because the casino would be located far from the tribe’s traditional homeland it requires the approval of Governor Jay Inslee.
Recently Kevin Washburn, head of the BIA observed that it would be deeply ironic to allow the Kalispel Tribe to develop a casino within the Spokane Tribe’s aboriginal area, while denying the Spokane Tribe the opportunity to use its own aboriginal lands for the same purpose.”
The tribe has chronic unemployment of well over half of its adult population with drinking water contaminated by radiation.
