BestCraps.com

Native American Tribe Faces Lawsuits over Planned Casino Development

Posted on September 27th, 2010

News Sponsored by Online Vegas Casino

Rated 5 Stars by BestCraps.com

Read Review

Visit Casino

Download Software

————————————————

In Arizona, the city of Glendale did not pull any punches in looking for a party to take to court. Of all groups available, the city has chosen to sue the federal government. Its case questioned the decision of the government to convert land located in the vicinity of the city’s sports and entertainment area into a reservation. The land, spanning 54 acres, now that it is a reservation, is expected to be awarded to the Tohono O’odham Nation, which in turn has always made its plans of constructing a casino in the area of 95th and Northern Avenues public. The city is opposed to those plans and, thus, is taking the root cause of the problem to court – the fact that the federal government turned the land into a conservation.

The tribe, on the other hand, cannot wait to commence work on the casino and the resort, which would also boast a hotel with 600 rooms. The tribe claims the hotel will be a huge boost to the economy by supplying the area with at least 6,000 jobs in construction and 3,000 jobs once the resort opens. The tribe, in a statement, said that new employment opportunities in the west Valley area are being postponed because of the suit the city has filed. It was the U.S. Department of Interior that approved the application of the tribe to include the land in the reservation system last month. Since then, a window of 30 days is left for public comment before the finalization of the transfer of deeds. After which, the tribe would need to secure approval from a federal agency to establish their gaming operations on the land. The tribe has a claim to construct a casino on the acreage sue to a federal settlement that gave the tribe permission to replace lands that were ruined by a dam. All of those actions are put on hold for the meantime because of the suit.

The mayor of Glendale, Elaine Scruggs, countered, “The Tohono O’odham Nation’s plans are detrimental to everybody but to the Tohono O’odham Nation.” Meanwhile, city Attorney Craig Tindall said that the Interior’s decision did not consider all the factors and calls the ruling “arbitrary, capricious and contrary to the law.” He added that the state Legislature should have approved the move of taking the land out of the jurisdiction of the state first. He argued that federal officials surpassed their authority as guaranteed by the constitution. Thus, he is already anticipating of other players would file lawsuits one after the other. Even other Native American tribes have expressed opposition. The Gila River Indian Community filed theirs last week. Tindal concluded, “The issue here is the creation of a quasi-sovereign entity within our jurisdictional area that doesn’t answer to the state or local government but to the federal government, 2,500 miles away.”

With the federal decision, city officials said that the city would lose control over how the area will be developed. Moreover, it would not receive any form of revenues from the site. But then, they would still be tasked of providing services such as roads, water and police protection to the area. Scruggs added, “You are giving up your rights and the potential for your city to develop in an orderly, economically sound manner. Their scenario would remove the potential economic health and wealth from a community and actually hurts those who have invested their money.” She thinks she will have no problem with the casino should the tribe abide by local and state laws in building their facility, just like any other developer. By having another casino, the mayor said that the tribe is circumventing the citizens of Arizona. Neighboring Westgate City is also anticipated to suffer from the competition the proposed resort will bring to its existing facilities.

The tribe, in their defense, through its chairman, Ned Norris Jr. said that the two lawsuits that have been filed so far “are filled with stale arguments designed to distract the public from the fact that this is a critical economic development project for the West Valley and the entire state of Arizona. This law was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Reagan after the U.S. Government destroyed nearly 10,000 acres of the Nation’s lands.”