After much deliberation, the Trump administration has signaled that it will follow the example of the Obama administration and defend the Cowlitz Tribe of Washington against a legal challenge to its legitimacy as a tribe.
This development occurs just a few weeks’ shy of the tribe’s planned opening of its $400 million, and after three extensions were granted to the administration by the U.S. Supreme Court, which is considering whether to hear Citizens Against Reservation Shopping v. Jewell.
Finally government attorneys presented the U.S. position, which is that the Bureau of Indian Affairs made the right decision in putting the land near La Center into trust.
The brief from the Department of Justice asserts, “The BIA officially acknowledged the Cowlitz Tribe in 2002 only after a rigorous historical, anthropological, and genealogical investigation, which demonstrated that the tribe was officially recognized in the late 1800s and maintained tribal relations through the present.”
The brief argues that the tribe fits the definition of “under jurisdiction” in 1934, as required by the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Carcieri v. Salazar, which holds that tribes that came under such jurisdiction after 1934 cannot put land into trust.
In reaching this conclusion the Trump Justice Department concurs with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled for the BIA last summer.
Now it will be up to the high court to decide whether to take the case despite the Justice Department argument. Opponents of the tribe have argued in their appeal that “If a tribe was not a ‘recognized Indian tribe’ in 1934, it cannot have been a ‘recognized Indian tribe now under federal jurisdiction” in 1934,”
The casino is set to open on April 17 unless stopped by a court order.
When Trump was active in casino development he visited the site. The tribe was looking for a casino development partner. It decided not to accept Trump’s terms.
