It’s Happening at Chinook Winds ...
Chinook Winds Casino & Convention Center
moral fabric of the community and that
quality of life would decline,” ignoring the fact
that Oregon ranks third in the nation in state-
sponsored gambling, next to Nevada and
New Jersey; that gambling abounds in the
city of Salem; and that the governor herself
approved video poker in 1992, which by the
end of the year had been installed in
thousands of bars and clubs across
the state.
In a sudden reversal of his long-held
position, Secretary Lujan informed the tribe
on Dec. 21,1992, that although “we do not
necessarily agree that the governor’s
assessment is accurate,” the solicitor has
advised the fee-to-trust could not be
approved without the governor’s
concurrence.
On Dec. 22, the Siletz Tribe filed a
lawsuit against the U.S. government on the
grounds it was unconstitutional for the
secretary to deny the tribe’s application
based on the governor’s non-concurrence.
The year 1993 began and ended with
the tribe in litigation over this issue. While
the case was pending, however, it was
necessary to purchase the Salem property
to prevent it from being lost to a tax
foreclosure. Loss of the property would have
ended the tribe’s lawsuit, and the tribe would
have had to start all over again with a new
piece of property. Rationale allowed that the
property was a good investment,
independent of gaming possibilities.
Following that line of reasoning, and since
the property could not be used for gaming,
the Ad-Hoc Gaming Committee began
exploring various options and uses for
the property.
Meanwhile, the Ad-Hoc Gaming
Committee quietly launched a concentrated
effort to locate an alternative gaming site,
24
this time in Lincoln County. The tribe
proceeded despite Gov. Roberts’ explicit
warning that she would not approve any
acquisition of off-reservation land for gaming
by any tribe.
The tribal attorney discovered that the
governor had negotiated a compact with the
Grand Ronde Tribe on property that the tribe
was using as its forestry headquarters. The
governor executed
the
compact
erroneously, believing that the property was
reservation land eligible for gaining under the
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. It
was not.
The governor s team agreed to continue
compact
negotiations t with
the
understanding that Lincoln City would be the
site of the proposed gaming center, with final
approval of the compact contingent on
congressional action to make the Lincoln
Shores property eligible for gaming
under IGRA.
j
In November 1994, the U.S. Congress
enacted HR 4719, which amended the
Siletz Reservation Act of 1980 to clarify that
11 acres in Lincoln City were to be accepted
in trust by the secretary of the Interior and
made part of the Siletz Reservation.
Since the Act also provided that the
property be made part of the Siletz
Reservation as of the tribe’s Reservation
Act of 1980, the 11 acres were automatically
eligible for gaming under the Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act. In fact, the property the
casino sits on was part of the original Siletz
Reservation established in 1856.
It was mutually agreed that the official
signing ceremony of the compact by the
tribal chairman and the governor would not
be announced until after the tribe had an
opportunity to meet with city council officials.
Through a clerical error, the signing was
by Teresa Miner
posted on the governor’s agenda and was
made public prematurely.
General community reaction to the
tribe’s plan to establish a gaming center in
the city was mixed. Opposition came mainly
from a small, vocal minority known as the
“No-Casino” Association. The association
filed a formal complaint with the Oregon
State Land Use Board, claiming that the city
did not comply with official procedures.
However, as vociferous as the No
Casino Association was, it did not reflect
general community attitudes as evidenced
by a survey conducted by the City Council
and published in The News Guard.
Within two months after the tribe’s plan
was made public, the Lincoln City Chamber
of Commerce hosted a luncheon for the
tribe, which drew a large number of
community residents. There was
considerable support and interest in learning
more about the tribe’s plans directly from
tribal officials.
Later that same month, at a joint
meeting of the City and Tribal Councils, co
chaired by the mayor and the tribal
chairman, it was mutually agreed that the
two governments would cooperatively
address issues, including the tribe’s need
for municipal services. Although a number
of issues remained, the Siletz Tribe
completed negotiations with the city in July
for essential municipal services.
A ceremony dedicating the gaming
center site was held on Feb. 25,1995. After
several months of intensive negotiations, a
tribal/state compact for conducting Class III
gaming was successfully signed by the
governor and the tribal chairman. The
compact provided for the operation of a
10,000-square-foot temporary gaming facility
for one year while the permanent facility was
under construction.
PCL, a major construction firm based
in Bellevue, Wash., whose background
included the Mall of America in Minneapolis
and the Denver Airport, was awarded the
contract to complete the 10,000-square-foot
temporary facility and to construct the
permanent facility under a design/build
contract.
Kane and Johnson, an architectural
firm based in Minneapolis, Minn., with
extensive experience in designing casinos,
was contracted to design the 140,000-
square-foot gaming and convention facility
(later enlarged to 159,000 feet with the
addition of a mezzanine floor).
Creative Design and Engineering of
Newport, Ore., was contracted to serve as
the owner’s representative to monitor the
planning and construction of the temporary
and permanent centers.