Northern Tribes to Study Gaming Plan

Northern tribes to study gaming plan

Sunday, January 09, 2005
By Brad SwensonStaff Writerbswenson@bemidjipioneer.com

RED LAKE - Leaders of three northern tribes plan to mull over a state role in a joint casino partnership.
“Red Lake has not committed to anything,” Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd “Buck” Jourdain said Friday.
Representatives of Red Lake, White Earth and Leech Lake bands of Chippewa met Thursday at White Earth with Gov. Tim Pawlenty over the tribes’ pitch for a northern Twin Cities casino partnership with them and the state.
Pawlenty gave the tribes some options under which such a partnership could be envisioned.
“He calls them concepts, not proposals,” Jourdain said. “Each council will talk.”
Jourdain gave the update during a town meeting Friday, held by Sen. Rod Skoe, DFL-Clearbrook, at which he included Reps. Brita Sailer, DFL-Park Rapids, and Kent Eken, DFL-Twin Valley.
Pawlenty has proposed a “take” of tribal gaming proceeds in Minnesota in exchange of offering the tribes exclusivity. He estimates that portion, about 25 percent, at $350 a million, but the tribes dispute that figure.
Red Lake and White Earth have pushed for the Minnesota Gaming Equity Act, allowing them to operate a Twin Cities-area casino and splitting the proceeds with the state. Now, Leech Lake has joined the other two tribes.
The Twin Cities market is seen as more lucrative for the state’s poorest tribes
and most abundant, making up about 80 percent of the state’s American Indian population.
Jourdain said the Red Lake Tribal Council recently voted to continue to support the Minnesota Gaming Equity Act, “to move forward and push as far as we can.”
But now Pawlenty’s “concepts” will also be studied. Jourdain, in an interview, said that the state’s other tribes probably will not like what Pawlenty is proposing. But he added that all the tribes are speaking and working together, that sovereignty is a key concept.
But while Pawlenty would like an answer before he releases his budget in two weeks, Jourdain said the tribes feel no immediate pressure, as the Legislature isn’t scheduled to adjourn until May 23.
Under the northern tribes proposal, they would operate the casino, with the state getting about $90 million a year and the tribes splitting about $190 million with construction costs.
“It was a very cordial, good meeting,” Skoe said of the gathering with Pawlenty, which he also attended. “And I think that the remarks of the representatives who were there reflect that. They were all quite positive in their relationships with the governor.”
Red Lake was represented at the meeting by Tribal Secretary Judy Roy and Tribal Treasurer Darrell Seki.
Skoe also anticipated that the governor’s pitch might put the northern tribes at odds with the state’s other tribes, to which Pawlenty seeks revenue sharing.
“You see the wedge being driven between the northern tribes and the rest of the tribes,” he said. “As discussions go forward, there are a lot of issues that Indian people in Minnesota work on that are broader than gaming, and hopefully they’ll be able to move beyond this and work together on all the other issues.”
Any agreement worked out between the state and the three tribes still won’t mean major money for the state, however. “It’s not going to solve the deficit, it’s just not that large,” Skoe said. “But if we can come up with something positive that benefits many of the native American peoples in the state, we should be looking at that. And if the state can get some resources out of that, that would be a good thing also.”
Skoe, now vice chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Veterans and Gaming Committee, said Thursday’s meeting also included the panel’s chairman, Sen. Jim Vickerman, DFL-Tracy, who in the past has been cool about gaming bills.
“The Senate has really been the holdup on gaming legislation,” Skoe said. “Gaming legislation has passed the House in the last couple of years, and I don’t know what the changes in membership will do for the House in their ability to pass gaming legislation.”
The GOP holds a 68-66 margin, having lost 13 seats in the fall election. The House previously approved the Minnesota Gaming Equity Act, as well as slot machines at Canterbury Park, the so-called “racino” proposal.
“I do sense that there is a little more support for some kind of gaming bill in the Senate,” Skoe said. Vickerman “did talk (Thursday) like he was going to hear the bills and give them a hearing and let the committee decide.”
Sailer said she would support legislation that helps the district, as well as the state.
“It’s my job to be looking at what benefits the people of this district and this area, and also the people of Minnesota,” she said. “It’s going to be give and take, most certainly, on it.”