The National Indian Gaming Commission last week issued a “notice of violation” to the Nooksack Tribe of Washington state, ordering it to close its Northwood Casino. The federal regulators contend that the Nooksack government is illegitimate because there have been no elections in four years and have tried to disenroll more than 300 members. The tribe has no regulatory oversight and has failed to do background checks on tribal and casino officials, including Chairman Robert Kelly Jr.
The NIGC “Notice of Violation” ordered the tribe to stop casino operations because of a litany of problems:
The tribe has failed:
• To maintain its sole proprietary interest and responsibility for the conduct of any gaming activity.
• To submit the required attestation certifying that the construction and maintenance of the gaming facility adequately protects the environment and public health and safety.
• To maintain and operate the gaming facility in a manner that adequately protects the environment and public health and safety, which is evident in orders issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) detailing significant deficiencies of the Safe Drinking Water Act that have occurred at six water systems, including the Northwood Casino Water System.
• To perform required licensing actions for members of the Nooksack Business Corporation II (NBCII) who are primary management officials of the Northwood Casino.
Jonodev O. Chaudhuri, the chairman of the NIGC, says it was a necessary action.
“We do not take lightly the issuance of notices of violation and closure orders against tribal gaming operations,” he said. “We are taking this significant enforcement action only after a complete analysis of the unique circumstances involved, including a full review of the structure of the tribe’s governing and business bodies. The violations set forth in the notice compromise the integrity of the Northwood Casino and the gaming industry as a whole, diminish the sole proprietary interests of the tribe, threaten the health and safety of the public, and impede the tribe’s ability to make necessary decisions to administer their operations.”
In order to correct the ongoing violations, the Nooksack tribe must comply with all licensing requirements, submit the required construction and maintenance attestation, and take corrective action to resolve the EPA violations. The tribe could face civil penalty violations in the amount of $50,276 for each violation per day of occurrence until corrected.
The NIGC rarely takes such a definitive step, and the decision was urged a week earlier by former NIGC Chairman Harold Monteau.
The tribe’s other casino in Deming, Washington, closed in 2015 after taking out a $15 million loan to complete a renovation. The tribal-owned entity, Nooksack Business Corp., borrowed the money and made a few payments before going into default.
In October of last year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs said it would not consider the Nooksack government legitimate unless elections were held to replace all four council members, whose terms had expired a year earlier.
The 300 tribal members who are targeted for disenrollment have filed suit against Kelly and the council. But with approximately 2,000 members, the tribe has yet to respond.
