The Shoshone-Paiute Tribes (Sho-Pai) of the Duck Valley Reservation, which opposes plans by the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes (Sho-Bans) to build a casino in Mountain Home, has appealed to Idaho Gov. Brad Little and the Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to stop it, the Idaho Statesman reported June 12.
The proposed casino—the Sho-Bans’ 4th—would be 40 miles southeast of Boise, in Elmore County on a 154.5-acre parcel the tribe purchased in 2020.
Other tribes want to build in Mountain Home, and one says it’s actually part of its homeland. That’s the claim made by Brian Mason, tribal chairman of the Sho-Pai, which has never built a casino on its own reservation due to its remote location on the Idaho-Nevada state line.
The Sho-Pai have been working on a casino for that location for more than 30 years, Mason told the Statesman. Because it would be on Interstate 84, it could draw from a market of 780,000 people in Ada and Canyon counties and about 30,000 in Elmore County.
Existing tribal casinos in Lewiston, Pocatello, Kamiah, near Coeur d’Alene, and on Fort Hall Reservation offer video gaming and bingo, but no table games. The proposed casino would not have table games, either.
Mason said his 2,300-member tribe has close connections with Mountain Home. They buy groceries and services, and are born at the Mountain Home hospital, while elders have funeral arrangements in the town when they die.
Mason declared, “We spend our paychecks there.” He added, “We’re cradle-to-grave there. We are Mountain Home. That’s where we’re from.”
The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes have about 6,000 members. They once offered a 10 percent partnership on a casino to the Sho-Pai, which the Sho-Pai rejected because they felt they should have a majority interest.
They tried to partner with JTC Gaming, but as the Sho-Bans’ plans moved ahead, investors for the Sho-Pai pulled out, saying the town couldn’t support two casinos.
Mason wrote to the governor and Secretary Haaland last month, calling the rival casino “a bridge too far.” He said the proposal could risk “elevating the interests of faraway tribes” and doom his tribe to poverty.
