SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — For decades, a small, landless tribe in Northern California has been on a mission to grab land, open a casino and tap into the gambling market enjoyed by so many other tribes that earn millions of dollars annually.
The Koi Nation's chances of owning a Las Vegas-style casino seemed impossible until a 2019 federal court ruling cleared the way for the small tribe to find a financial partner to purchase land and into a trust to qualify it for a casino.
Now the 96-member tribe has teamed up with the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, which owns the largest casino in the world, and is waiting for U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to decide whether the 27-acre parcel will be the tribe's plan to open in 2021. was purchased in Sonoma County for $12.3 million, is being held in confidence.
By putting the land into trust, the Koi could move closer to building a $600 million casino and resort on prime real estate in the heart of Northern California's wine country.
The decision comes as the U.S. government seeks to atone for its history of dispossessing indigenous peoples of their lands, in part through a federal legal process that goes beyond restoring ancestral lands and allows a tribe country into confidence if it 'can make an important contribution'. historical connection with the country.”
The Koi Nation, a southeastern Pomo tribe whose ancestors have lived in Northern California for thousands of years, is facing increasing opposition from other tribes and even California Governor Gavin Newsom over his plans for the Shiloh Resort and Casino, which will feature a slot machine with would include 2,500 slot machines. casino and hotel with 400 rooms, spa and swimming pool.
If approved, the casino would be built near Windsor, about 65 miles north of San Francisco, near two other Native American casinos a few miles away: Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park and River Rock Casino in Geyserville.
The money generated would give tribal members a better life in one of the country's most expensive regions, including educational opportunities for young tribal members, said Dino Beltran, vice chairman of the Koi Nation's Tribal Council.
“It has taken us years to be on the same playing field as every other tribe in the United States, and now the same tribes that have settled are against us. It's very sad,” Beltran said.
One of the most outspoken critics of the Koi Nation project is Greg Sarris, chairman of Graton Rancheria, a federation of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo people with more than 1,500 members. The tribe's casino is the largest in the Bay Area and is undergoing a $1 billion expansion.
Sarris, who was appointed by Newsom last year to the University of California Board of Regents, said the Koi Nation is a Southeast Pomo people whose ancestral home is in Lake County, about 50 miles northeast of the project location.
The tribe, Sarris said, is not linguistically, culturally or historically connected to Sonoma County, and he accused the tribe of grabbing land that already attracts tourists.
“They claim that part of their deep historical bond is the fact that they had a relative who lived in Sonoma County in the early 1900s,” Sarris scoffed.
The Indian Gaming Regulation Act, enacted by Congress in 1988, sets rules for how and where Native American tribes can operate casinos, generally limiting them to ancestral lands returned to the tribe.
But the law also makes a “restored land” exception for federally recognized tribes that don't have a reservation — or rancheria, as they're called in California — to build a casino outside their ancestral lands if the tribe can show historical and modern connections demonstrate the area where the gambling facility will be located. The land must also be close to where a significant number of tribal members live.
“In general, tribes cannot play on lands taken into trust after 1988, but there are important exceptions to that blanket ban that are intended to be fair to tribes that did not have land in 1988,” said Kathryn Rand, an expert in the area of tribal gaming law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas International Center for Gaming Regulation.
Before white settlers arrived in California, Koi Nation ancestors lived on an island in Lake County and traded with other tribes in Northern California, according to the tribe's website.
In 1916, the U.S. government approved land in Lake County for the Koi Nation rancheria, about 30 miles north of the proposed casino site. The land was eventually declared uninhabitable by the Bureau of Indian Affairs due to its rocky terrain and many Koi families moved south into neighboring Sonoma County, mainly to Sebastopol and Santa Rosa, where the tribe is now headquartered.
Forty years later, the federal government seized that land and sold it for an airport, leaving the tribe landless. After a lengthy court battle, a federal judge ruled in 2019 that the Koi Nation had the right to purchase land for a casino.
Michael Anderson, an attorney for Koi Nation, said a historic trail used by the tribe from the Clear Lake basin to Bodega Bay, on Sonoma County's Pacific coast, passes through part of the property, which is the legal requirement supports having a 'significant historical background'. connection with the land.”
Anderson said their legal case is strong. But “politics is something completely different,” he added.
Sarris, whose casino gives millions to small, non-gaming tribes and has become a major donor to California politicians, said the Koi Nation has previously tried to get land under trust to open a casino in Solano and Alameda counties – both in the San Francisco area. Bay Area — and accused the tribe of “reservation shopping.”
Anderson said the term was offensive and that Sarris is simply trying to protect his lucrative casino from competition.
“This is about market protection, that's the heart of it,” Anderson said.
Newsom and local politicians also oppose the project, along with the Dry Creek Band of Pomo Indians, which operates River Rock Casino.
Newsom's office sent a letter last month to the Interior Department's Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, Bryan Newland, urging him not to move forward with the Shiloh casino project and another proposed casino in the Bay Area, saying the governor is concerned the department isn't considering other plans. locations for the casinos and approving them would “expand the boundaries of the 'restored lands' exception.”
The department is weighing three other land trust applications under the “restored lands” exception, including one from the Scotts Valley Tribe that wants to build a casino in Solano County. In Oregon, the Coquille Indian Tribe wants to open a casino in Medford, about 170 miles (273 kilometers) south of the tribal headquarters and closer to the California border.
Tribes that own casinos are pushing back on both. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Guidiville Rancheria tribe in Northern California has applied but has not yet identified land for their project.
Haaland will consider several factors in making her decision, including opposition to the casinos, said Steve Light, an expert on tribal gaming policy at the UNLV International Center for Gaming Regulation.
But the secretary will also take into account whether the casino will help with “tribal self-determination, tribal self-governance, and tribal economic development, creating jobs and resources for the tribe,” he said.
Of the 574 federally recognized tribes, 110 are in California. According to the American Gaming Association, there are 87 tribal casinos in the state, making California the largest tribal gaming market in the country.
“With 40 million people in California, this is likely still an untapped market, but one that is becoming increasingly competitive,” Light said.
