Post by blackcrowheart on Jun 4, 2006 17:09:33 GMT -5
Big Lagoon Compact (politics)
Big Lagoon compact
Deal protects an estuary, helps a tribe
www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/14262610p-15075832c.html
The gambling compact Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed with Humboldt
County's Big Lagoon tribe to build a casino in Barstow a thousand miles
from its ancestral homeland has been criticized as another reservation
shopping scheme. It is not.
The state itself is pushing the Barstow compact and for good reason.
Big Lagoon Rancheria sits on the edge of the environmentally sensitive
Big Lagoon, an important estuary that borders a spectacular string of
state parks on California's North Coast. A narrow sand spit separates
the lagoon from the Pacific Ocean. The tribe's land and the lagoon
provide natural habitat for steelhead trout, bald eagles, peregrine
falcons and northern red-legged frogs.
The tribe has the legal right to build a casino there. If it exercised
that right, the loss to the state and the environment would be
monumental.
The tribe has agreed to give up that right forever in exchange for an
extremely lucrative partnership interest in a casino in Barstow with
another tribe, the Los Coyotes. Los Coyotes' reservation sits in a very
remote region of northern San Diego County, on land unsuitable for
commercial development.
This is not a situation in which a casino is being imposed on unwilling
citizens. City leaders of Barstow actively sought a casino. They signed
a management services agreement with Los Coyotes and are poised to sign
another with Big Lagoon. Both tribes have signed compacts with
Schwarzenegger to give California a bigger share of casino revenues if a
casino is built.
They have also given up some sovereignty rights so enforceable
mitigation agreements with local governments are possible.
Opponents worry legitimately that the deal would cause other tribes
living on environmentally sensitive or commercially unviable land to
seek similar deals. So be it. Every tribe's circumstances are different.
The governor and the Legislature have to weigh those circumstances
against the wider public interest for each compact.
In this case, the agreement to allow two tribes from outside the area to
build a casino in Barstow, where local citizens seem to want it, in
exchange for protecting the Big Lagoon is a good deal for the public and
the Indians.
Big Lagoon compact
Deal protects an estuary, helps a tribe
www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/14262610p-15075832c.html
The gambling compact Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed with Humboldt
County's Big Lagoon tribe to build a casino in Barstow a thousand miles
from its ancestral homeland has been criticized as another reservation
shopping scheme. It is not.
The state itself is pushing the Barstow compact and for good reason.
Big Lagoon Rancheria sits on the edge of the environmentally sensitive
Big Lagoon, an important estuary that borders a spectacular string of
state parks on California's North Coast. A narrow sand spit separates
the lagoon from the Pacific Ocean. The tribe's land and the lagoon
provide natural habitat for steelhead trout, bald eagles, peregrine
falcons and northern red-legged frogs.
The tribe has the legal right to build a casino there. If it exercised
that right, the loss to the state and the environment would be
monumental.
The tribe has agreed to give up that right forever in exchange for an
extremely lucrative partnership interest in a casino in Barstow with
another tribe, the Los Coyotes. Los Coyotes' reservation sits in a very
remote region of northern San Diego County, on land unsuitable for
commercial development.
This is not a situation in which a casino is being imposed on unwilling
citizens. City leaders of Barstow actively sought a casino. They signed
a management services agreement with Los Coyotes and are poised to sign
another with Big Lagoon. Both tribes have signed compacts with
Schwarzenegger to give California a bigger share of casino revenues if a
casino is built.
They have also given up some sovereignty rights so enforceable
mitigation agreements with local governments are possible.
Opponents worry legitimately that the deal would cause other tribes
living on environmentally sensitive or commercially unviable land to
seek similar deals. So be it. Every tribe's circumstances are different.
The governor and the Legislature have to weigh those circumstances
against the wider public interest for each compact.
In this case, the agreement to allow two tribes from outside the area to
build a casino in Barstow, where local citizens seem to want it, in
exchange for protecting the Big Lagoon is a good deal for the public and
the Indians.