California
As the Feb. 5 vote to ratify four California tribes’ new Tribal Gaming Compacts draws near, drafts of ballot Propositions 94, 95, 96 and 97 are now available for public viewing at www.sos.ca.gov/ . “Yes” votes will ratify the amendments to existing Tribal Gaming Compacts to permit the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission Indians to operate 5,500 additional slot machines in exchange for a $42.5 million annual payment (plus a percentage of revenue generated from the new slot machines) to the state’s General Fund; the Morongo Band of Mission Indians to operate 5,500 additional slot machines in exchange for a $36.7 million annual payment (plus a percentage of revenue generated from the new slot machines) to the state’s General Fund; the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation to operate 3,000 additional slot machines in exchange for a $20 million annual payment (plus a percentage of revenue generated from the new slot machines) to the state’s General Fund; and the Aqua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians to operate 3,000 additional slot machines in exchange for a $23.4 million annual payment (plus a percentage of revenue generated from the new slot machines) to the state’s General Fund. “Yes” votes would also omit certain projects from the scope of the California Environmental Quality Act, providing for Tribal Environmental Impact Reports and intergovernmental procedures to address environmental impact.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who negotiated the compacts last year, has made his support of the Propositions public, signing his name to the official arguments that will be mailed to voters with their ballot pamphlets. Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell and Gene Gantt of the California Fire Chiefs Association also signed in support of “Yes” votes on the official arguments. Lending their names to the official opposition are President Marty Hittelman of the California Federation of Teachers, John Gomez of the American Indian Rights and Resources Organization, and Lenny Goldberg of the California Tax Reform Association.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has rejected the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians’ 25-year-old petition for federal recognition. Recognition would have allowed the tribe to establish a reservation and possibly bring the first casino to Orange County. The Department of the Interior says the Juaneño failed to meet four of the seven criteria used to determine whether a group of Indians constitutes a historic tribe. The Juaneño now have seven months to provide additional information and appeal the decision. The state has recognized the Juaneño since 1993, but federal recognition is required before the tribe can move forward with casino plans.
Connecticut
After six months of campaigning that had both the Indian Gaming industry and organized labor on the edge of their seats, table games dealers at Foxwoods Resort Casino joined the United Auto Workers union, passing the vote to unionize 1,289 to 852. A signed contract at Foxwoods could still be years away, but the impact of the vote is already being felt across Indian Country. Although this is not the first tribal casino to employ unionized workers, this was the first union election at a tribal casino to be supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, and the first to test the impact of the U.S. Court of Appeals’ San Manuel vs. NLRB decision. The second NLRB-supervised union election is already coming up for 300 housekeepers at the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe’s Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Michigan, this one initiated by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The battle is not entirely lost, however, for tribal leaders. If the Mashantucket Pequot, for example, refuse to bargain with union representatives, the issue of the NLRB’s jurisdiction in tribal casinos could return to federal court. The tribe has already filed objections with the local NLRB office, but as of CEM’s press time, what exactly those objections included was unknown.
Wisconsin
A Wisconsin tribe is taking the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to court over a casino project in Beloit. In a request for injunctive relief, the St. Croix Chippewa say the BIA changed its application review rules to prevent the approval of its off-reservation casino application, in effect trying to make the tribe — and any others pursuing off-reservation gaming — start the process from scratch. The St. Croix’s application had already met all local requirements and passed a district review when the BIA decided that the land trust application that previously had been the last step of the approval process would now come first, necessitating entirely new paperwork. The complaint cites Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne and Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Carl Artman as those to blame for “negative personal views toward off-reservation gaming” leading the BIA to “craft an artifice by which it can plausibly proceed to deny a number of pending off-reservation casino applications, including Beloit.”
The Bad River Chippewa are also involved in the Beloit casino development project, which has been in the works since 1990, and will reportedly join the St. Croix in the complaint. The Regis Mohawk Tribe filed a similar complaint this fall.