Pqge 16
Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
November 24, 2005
House committee testimony of Tribal Council Chairman Ron Suppah
Ml ! I.I ! Ml 'II
(I'ht fulltmiiit is excerpted from the
testimony of Tribal Cuiinril Chairman
Ron Suppah befort tht U.S. I i oust of
Representatives Committee oh Re
sources, during d Son 9 hearing on draft
legislation, the Vombo bill, ' regarding
off resenation Indian Gaming:)
Good morning, Chairman
Pombo and members of the
Committee. I am appearing today
to express our tribe's very serious
concerns with the second discus
sion draft of legislation regarding
off-reservation Indian gaming. As
explained in further detail in our
testimony, Warm Springs believes
that the second discussion draft,
if enacted into law, would unfairly
terminate our tribe's very costly
and years' long'cffort to pursue
vitally necessary financial self-sufficiency
through a gaming facility
on our aboriginal, treaty-reserved
lands in a small, rural community
that shares our hope for future
economic security.
Introduction
The Warm Springs tribe is now
engaged in the process of seek
ing federal approval of a tribal
gaming facility at a location within
our treaty ceded lands 38 miles
from our reservation and 17 miles
from a parcel of Warm Springs
trust land that is eligible for gam
ing. Our actions are based on
unique circumstances, and we are
well along in the process. In our
efforts, all the parties have been
diligent, open and fair, and have
scrupulously abided by all estab
lished laws and guidelines. Al
though we do not know whether
we will succeed in this effort, we
believe we have been following a
model process for pursuing gam
ing on after-acquired land and ask
that, as the Resources Committee
considers the second discussion
draft, you make appropriate
changes to the draft to allow us to
complete the process as it is cur
rently written.
The second discussion draft
(legislation) would almost cer
tainly deny our tribe the opportu
nity to establish a gaming facility
on new trust lands because it is
very unlikely Warm Springs will be
able to have our Compact "in ef
fect" by the draft's date of enact
ment, nor will our tribe, which has
had a government-to-government
relationship with the United States
since our Treaty of June 25, 1855,
qualify within the limited excep
tion for "newly recognized, re
stored, or landless" tribes on that
date.
Before examining the second
discussion draft in more detail, I
would like to provide some back
ground on the dire financial cir
cumstances that have led us to
pursue this project, how we gained
the support of Oregon's governor
and the local community for the
project, and the costly and time
consuming efforts we have been
making to pursue the project to
this late stage in the existing IGRA
process.
Declining Tribal Revenues
The dramatic decline in our
timber revenues illustrates the
problem we are facing In 1994,
timber revenues contributed $23.8
million toward our total tribal rev
enues of $37.6 million. By 2002,
timber revenue had plummeted to
just $5.7 million, bringing total
tribal revenues down to $25.3 mil
lion. Thus, over this recent eight
year period a 74 percent drop in
tribal timber revenue resulted in a
33 percent decline in total tribal
revenues.
The long-term outlook for tim
ber income continues to be pessi
mistic as our tribal forest resource
adjusts to conservative sustained
yield forest management practices
and the national and global wood
products markets continue to re
main depressed. As a result, the
decade-long decline in the tribe's
revenue picture is projected to
only worsen in the years ahead.
Consequences
As tribal revenues decline over
time, essential services and needs
go unmet and additional needs
accrue. In addition, while essen
tial governmental needs go unmet,
tribal enterprises are deprived of
capital to grow their enterprises
and provide on-reservation job
and training opportunities. Be
cause of the shrinking job base
and high unemployment, a sizable
portion of the reservation popu
lation depends entirely on federal
and tribal social service programs,
which have experienced budget
cuts in each of the last ten years.
As the tribe's membership
grows and its revenues decrease,
needs continue to go unmet and
increase in number and magni
tude. This is an unsustainable cycle
that the tribe seeks to remedy with
revenues from the Cascade Locks
gaming facility. Increased tribal
income is needed to provide ser
vices and infrastructure to help
reverse this negative trend, espe
cially in the areas of education,
health care and economic oppor
tunity programs.
Our Current Casino
In an effort to address this
growing financial crisis, in 1995
the tribe opened a small Class III
casino on the reservation as part
of the tribe's existing Kah-Nee-Ta
Resort. However, the Kah-Nee-Ta
casino is isolated from
Oregon's major population cen
ters, and its revenues have done
little to span the growing gap be
tween our tribe's income and our
governmental requirements. As a
result, our tribal budgets have con
tinued to decline and we have been
forced to cut services as well as
draw upon our limited emergency
reserve funds.
Under the terms of our Com
pact with Oregon's governor, we
are required to close the casino at
Kah-Nee-Ta if we open a facility
at Cascade Locks.
The Columbia River
To address the tribe's increas
ingly difficult financial circum
stances, in the late 1990s we con
ducted a survey of potential alter
native gaming sites, and in 1999
the tribal membership approved
a referendum by a wide margin
"Have a great holiday season -And
be sure to check your tires
directing the Tribal Council to
pursue development of a casino
on our traditional lands along the
Columbia River. Wc initially fo
cused on a 40 acre parcel of pre
IGRA tribal trust land, which is
eligible for gaming, on a wooded
hillside overlooking the Columbia
River just outside the City of
Hood River.
Since time immemorial, the
Columbia River has been the
home of our people. Its salmon,
eels and other foods have nour
ished untold generations, and
when we agreed in our 1855
Treaty to move from our tradi
tional homes along the Columbia
River and its Oregon tributaries to
our current reservation south of
the Columbia, our forefathers
were careful to reserve our rights
to continue to fish on the river as
well as hunt, graze and gather tra
ditional foods throughout our
Treaty ceded lands. Fishing on the
Columbia River remains at the
core of our culture, and many of
our people continue to fish today
for ceremonial, subsistence, and
commercial purposes. Indeed,
many of our tribal members live
year-round on the Columbia's
banks, and thousands of acres
of individual Indian and tribal
trust allotments are scattered
" along the Columbia.
Hood River and Cascade
Locks
As the tribe moved forward
with preparations to develop a
casino on the Hood River trust
land, the City of Hood River and
others in the area expressed con
cerns about locating a casino
there. At that time, 1998 and 1999,
the struggling community of Cas
cade Locks, 17 miles to the west,
approached the tribe about the
possibility of locating a facility in
the mostly vacant Cascade Locks
Industrial Park, which was created
in the 1970s along the banks of
the Columbia River out of fill
material from construction at
nearby Bonneville Dam. The Cas
cade Locks site is within the tribe's
Treaty ceded lands along the Co
lumbia River in which Warm
Springs holds federally protected
off-reservation treaty reserved
fishing, hunting and gathering
rights. The Cascade Locks site is
also within the area determined by
the Indian Claims Commission in
Confederated Tribes of the Warm
Springs Reservation of Oregon v.
United States Pocket No. 198) to
be CTWS aboriginal lands exclu
sive of the claims of any other
tribe or tribes.
Shifting the tribe's Columbia
River casino development plans
from the gaming-eligible Hood
River site to the Cascade Locks
Industrial Park site will be benefi
cial for both the Cascade Locks
and Hood River communities as
well as the State of Oregon.
The Compact and Other
Agreements
Informing the Oregon
governor's office and the Depart
ment of the Interior of the tribe's
intention to develop a casino at
the Cascade Locks site in lieu of
the Hood River trust lands site, in
before
1999 the tribe initiated what be
came years-long discussions with
Cascade I-ocks and the state that
resulted in a scries of agreements
signed earlier this year between
Cascade Locks, the tribe and the
state. These agreements include a
Class III gaming Compact with
the State, a separate agreement
with the State regarding preserva
tion of the I lood River trust lands
and a Memorandum of Agree
ment with the City of Cascade
I-ocks and Hood River County
addressing impacts of the casino
on the local community. Our ap
proach of entering into these
agreements before taking the land
into trust for gaming was intended
to address any local concerns
about developing a casino in the
Cascade Ixx:ks Industrial Park and
to secure the governor's commit
ment to concur in the Secretary's
two-part determination... regard
ing environmental protection,
working conditions, the Commu
nity Benefit Fund and revenue
sharing as set out in the Compact.
This approach has led to near
unanimous acceptance of the Cas
cade Ixcks site, as indicated by the
thirty-two federal, State and locally
elected officials who have en
dorsed and embraced the Cascade
Locks site in an April 29, 2005 let
ter to Interior Secretary Norton.
Regarding the Compact, in
March of 2004, we entered into
formal negotiations with the state
that concluded over a year later
when the governor and the tribe
signed the Compact on April 6,
2005. The Compact is unusually
comprehensive and fair, and is
supported by the local counties,
nearby cities and towns in Oregon
and Washington, Congressman
Greg Walden who represents Cas
cade Locks and Hood River, and
state legislators from the area, in
addition to the governor, Cascade
Locks, and our tribe.
Compact Disapproved by In
terior Policy Change
On April 8, 2005, the tribe and
the governor submitted the Com
pact to the Secretary of the Inte
rior for the 45-day review pro
vided under IGRA. As usual, the
Secretary's review team asked for
clarification regarding several sec
tions of the Compact. When the
governor and Warm Springs sub
mitted a response, we requested a
meeting to go over the questions
and responses. On the afternoon
of May 17, four days before the
end of the 45 day review period,
we met with personnel from the
Office of Indian Gaming Man
agement, the Secretary's Office
and the Solicitor's Office. In the
meeting, we proceeded through
our responses to the department's
questions, and while not all issues
were resolved, there were no sig
nificant objections. Then, in the
final ten minutes of the meeting,
the Director of the Office of In
dian Gaming Management in
formed us that the Secretary's
Office had a fundamental concern
about approving the Compact
before the land was taken into
trust, and was considering
whether to disapprove the Com
pact on that basis.
winter driving.
The tribe and the governor's
office filed written responses
within two days noting that wc had
acted in good faith on Interior De
partment representations that do
ing the Compact first was accept
able, that the Compact specifies it
becomes effective only when the
subject land is taken into trust for
gaming, and that IGRA does not
require that the land be in trust at
the time the Compact is approved.
We also noted that the Secretary
has, in the past, approved a num
ber of compacts before the sub
ject land has been taken into trust
for gaming. Unfortunately, two
days later, the Department disap
proved our Compact due to the
new procedural requirement, pre
viously unknown and unpublished
and representing a reversal of pre
vious practice...
Land Into Trust Request
Coming at the eleventh hour
of our Compact's consideration,
the Secretary's surprise policy an
nouncement of course disap
pointed us. However, as a result
of this decision, and as recom
mended in the Secretary's disap
proval letter, wc are proceeding
forward with our application to
take the land into trust under 25
C.F.R. Part 151 and IGRA Section
20(b)(1)(A). On April 8, 2005 the
Tribe formally submitted Tribal
Council Resolution No. 10,500 to
the BIA's Northwest Regional
Office and to the BIA Office of
Indian Gaming Management in
Washington, DC. requesting the
initiation of land-into-trust pro
ceedings for the Cascade Locks
casino site. The request seeks 25
acres in the Cascade Locks Indus
trial Park to be taken into trust for
the proposed casino and accom
panying hotel. Once that process
is completed, we will resubmit the
Compact for the Secretary's 45 day
review.
"Two-part determination"
On June 15, 2005, the BIA
Northwest Regional Office initi
ated the Secretarial "two-part de
termination" pursuant to IGRA
Section 20(b)(1)(A) by sending our
tribe a consultation letter request
ing information and responses to
thirteen specific questions. At the
same time, BIA Northwest Re
gional Office solicited informa
tion and responses from appropri
ate State and local officials, nearby
Indian tribes, and surrounding
communities regarding the Cas
cade Locks project. On August 1 5,
2005, as that comment period
concluded, Warm Springs for
mally submitted our 45-page re
sponse, with hundreds of pages
of supporting exhibits.
National Environmental
Policy Act (N.E.P.A.)
Having completed the Com
pact agreement with Oregon's
Governor and having executed
agreements with the local govern
ments to accommodate impacts,
and pursuant to our April 8, 2005
land-into-trust application, we
have moved into the very costly
N.E.P.A. environmental review
process required by the BIA's de
cision on our fee-to-trust applica
93
tion. The process will generate a
full environmental impact state
ment (EIS), and not just an envi
ronmental assessment. From Sep
tember 15, 2005 to September 28,
2005, the BIA Northwest Re
gional Office hosted five public
scoping meetings on the EIS, with
meetings in Hood River, Cascade
Locks, Portland, and Stevenson,
Washington. The scoping com
ment period concluded October
15, 2005. We anticipate a draft
EIS late this winter or spring, with
a final EIS to follow. This process,
which is the last major step lead
ing up to the Secretary's "two-part
determination" and the
Governor's concurrence, requires
the tribe to pay for the BIA's envi
ronmental contractor hired to pre
pare the EIS on the project...
We wish to emphasize that
Warm Springs is paying for these
efforts ourselves.
Second Discussion Draft
As described above, our tribe,
the Oregon Governor, Cascade
Locks and many surrounding
communities and jurisdictions
have invested great amounts of
time, energy and scarce resources
in fully complying with established
processes thus far. Moreover, and
perhaps unique among tribes,
Warm Springs has followed this
costly and time-consuming pro
cess relying solely on our own
funds in an effort to produce a
model partnership between the
tribe, state and local communities.
As Congress this Session began to
consider possible amendments to
IGRA that might alter the Section
20 process we have been follow
ing, we have hoped that we would
be permitted to see these pro
cesses through to the end, and that
Congress will not deliver us a last
minute fatal blow.
The second discussion draft
completely terminates the Section
20(b)(1)(A) process we have been
following and relying upon for
years. The statutory construction
provisions in Section 2 of the
draft appear to permit the con
tinuation after the date of enact
ment of only those compacts that
are "in effect" on that date. With
no provision for continuation of
any Section 20(b)(1)(A) process
after that date, the draft places us
in an impossible race to secure the
Secretary's approval of our Com
pact, placing it into effect, before
the draft's enactment. Interior has
already changed the rules on us to
preclude our Compact's consider
ation until the subject land is in
trust. Given the potentially long
time periods involving the EIS
and completing the land-into-trust
process, that is a race we would
almost certainly lose. Such a
change would be unfair and al
most punitive. We ask that our
treatment at the hands of Con
gress not be so harsh, and that leg
islation include a "grandfather"
clause allowing projects such as
ours, which is in our state, in our
aboriginal and Treaty-reserved ter
ritory, and based on a signed Com
pact with Oregon's governor, to
finish the process it started sev
eral years and many millions of
dollars ago.
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