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News from Indian Country
Pgge 7
Spily^y Tyrnoo
June 15, 2011
New Mexico tribes line up against casino Tonkawa Tribe pays $2
A LBU Q U ERQ U E, N.M.
(AP) — New M exico’s Indian
tribes are lining up against one
of their own as the federal gov
ernment once again is consider
ing a controversial proposal to
let a northern New M exico
pueblo partner with a Santa Fe
art dealer to build a hotel and
casino along the Texas-New
Mexico border.
The N ew M exico Indian
Gaming Association Inc., which
represents tribal casino opera
tors, recently filed comments
with the Bureau of Indian Af
fairs opposing the plan, accord
ing to Mark Chino, president of
the M escalero Apache tribe,
w hich op erates Inn o f the
Mountain Gods resort and ca
sino in the Ruidoso area.
The group’s attorney declined
to release a copy of the com
ments, but Chino said they are
basically the same objections the
tribes had when the project was
first proposed— and rejected—
under the Bush Administration.
Those objections are based on
questions about the tribes claim
to the trust land and its distance
—more than 300 miles— from
the pueblo.
“First of all, we don’t believe
that the project is going to ben
efit the people o f the Jemez
Pueblo, because as we argued
back then that the developer is
the one that appears to be the
major beneficiary of the project
as opposed to the Pueblo of
Jemez and the people of Jemez,”
said Chino, whose tribe stands
to lose the most among New
Mexico Indian gaming operators
if the Anthony project is ap
proved.
Gaming has been on the de
cline during the recession, he
said, and competition from a
new casino just over 100 miles
away and close to the populous
El Paso-Las Cruces m arket
“would devastate our hospital
ity enterprises hei;e in Ruidoso.
We have invested millions and
millions of dollars in our hospi
tality enterprises. And that would
certainly take away the lion's
share of our business.”
Chino said his tribe also dis
agrees with Jemez Pueblo’s at
tempt to claim a historical con
nection to the land in question.
“We believe that the
Mescalero Apache have a much
greater historical connection to
that area of the Southwest,” he
said.
The Jemez Pueblo is located
in northern New Mexico be
tween Albuquerque and Santa
Fe, along a corridor that already
has a number of Indian casinos.
U nder the p ro p o sal, the
Jemez Pueblo and a Santa Fe
developer and art dealer, Gerald
Peters, would build a $55 mil
lion casino and hotel in Anthony.
The plan was shot down in 2008
by the BIA, which said it was
too far from the pueblo to gen
erate jobs for the tribe.
The Obama Administration
reopened the request for the
Jemez proposal and a handful
of other off-reservation casinos
last year, but no one seems to
know why, Chino said.
“Everyone we have talked to
hasn’t been able to explain it,”
said Chino. “I am at a loss as to
why the federal governm ent
chose to reopen those. If you
go back... they determined it
wasn't a viable project for a num
ber of reasons. And now the
O bam a A dm in istratio n , for
whatever reasons, has chosen to
take a second look at it... There
has to be some kind of push
from officials somewhere in the
administration to tell the Inte
rior Department down to BIA,
“let’s do this again, let’s come to
a different conclusion. It doesn't
pass the smell test.”
The BIA did not respond to
questions from the Associated
Press about the reason for the
new review.
The governor of the Jemez
Pueblo could not be reached.
But a spokeswoman for Peters,
D enise R am onas, d isputed
Chino’s assertions that Peters,
rather than the Pueblo, had the
most to gain. She cited a June
2008 ruling from the National
Indian Gaming Commission that
she said found that all the agree
ments between the pueblo and
Peters complied with the Indian
Gaming Regulatory Act.
M any, in c lu d in g Gov.
Su san a M artin ez, are c o n
cerned about the precedent
that would be set if the project
is approved. There currently
are only five off-reservation
casinos in the United States, all
of which are within easy com
muting distance of the tribes
who run them.
Salmon
canning
Preparing fish prior to the
canning process are
Warner Williams, Josie
Williams, instructor Danita
Macy, and Jaime Smith
(from left). Warm Springs is
at 1500-foot elevation so
salmon should be in the
canner with 12 lbs of
pressure for 100 minutes. If
you would like more
information on salmon
canning or would like to
participate in upcoming
fruit canning classes
contact OSU Extension at
541-553-3238.
Yvonne Iverson/Spilyay
Universities partner to save dying languages
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -
Hutke Fields pictures a time
when younger generations of
Natchez people use his tribe’s
Native tongue at ceremonies,
while sharing oral histories and
during everyday talk at home.
But Field’s vision is compli
cated by the fact that only six
people, out o f about 10,000
members of the Natchez tribe
in Oklahoma, still speak the lan
guage.
“We’ll lose it if we don’t use
it,” said Fields, who received as
sistance last year during a work
shop d ed icated to h elp in g
American Indian communities
in Oklahoma to bring back dis
appearing languages.
Fields is a participant in the
Breath of Life project—a joint
effort by experts from the Uni
versity of Texas at Arlington
and the University of Oklahoma
— in w hich linguists m entor
American Indians so they can
better recover endangered lan
guages.
It is modeled after a project
at the University of California,
Berkeley.
“We are growing field lin
guists,” said Colleen Fitzgerald,
associate professor and chair
woman of UT Arlington’s Lin
guistics Department. “We are
transferring knowledge to com
munity members so they can
teach their own languages.”
The first workshop was held
in sum m er 2010 at OU in
Norman, Okla., which is also the
site o f the Sam Noble Okla-
y
homa Museum of Natural His
tory. Members of three Ameri
can Indian communities took
part: the O sage, O toe and
Natchez.
Linguists and American Indi
ans will be able to work together
again next May. The project re
cently got a funding boost that
vail allow for a second workshop,
Fitzgerald said.
The project team received a
total of $90,000 in grant money
from the National Science Foun
dation, an independent federal
agency that helps support re
search at colleges and universi
ties.
The grant is spread over two
years.
Besides training American
Indian community members to
be linguists on the ground, UT
Arlington will be working to cre
ate linguistic databases that will
ultimately enable the creation of
online dictionaries and collec
tions of texts in various lan
guages, Fitzgerald said.
Each community will have a
database w hich w ill also be
stored in a repository at the
Noble museum.
Oklahoma was described as
a “hot spot” of linguistic diver
sity by experts in N ational
Geographic’s Enduring Voices
Project, said Mary Linn, associ
ate curator of American Indian
languages at the Noble museum
and an associate professor of
anthropology at OU.
As N orth A m erica was
settled by whites, many tribes
'I grieve daily over
the loss o f cultural
values... ”
<c
were forced to move to Okla
homa. As a result, there is not
only a great deal of linguistic
diversity, but also high levels of
language endangerment, Linn
said.
The languages grew even
more endangered as American
Indians assimilated to English-
speaking culture that dominates
society.
“It’s hard to resist shifting to
English,” Linn said, adding that
many small tribes picked up the
languages of larger tribes.
Today, language sleuths rely
on tribal records, grammar and
alp habets that w ere often
chronicled by missionaries, mili
tary generals and tribes. Presi
dent Thomas Jefferson also col
lected word lists, Linn said.
Fields said the project allowed
his community to computerize
a dictionary and research. Now,
Natchez people in South Caro
lina can practice w ith their
Natchez friends in Oklahoma.
This also allows Natchez histo
ries to flow more readily from
elders who still tell of their con
tributions to America as farm
ers expert in corn and beans.
Their histories tell of a people
displaced from the Gulf Coast
and of deaths from influenza
that followed early encounters
with European explorers.
“I grieve daily over the loss
of cultural values,” said Fields,
principal chief for the tribe. “It
takes a com m unity and
economy and people who want
to preserve.”
million to settle lawsuit
In its lawsuit, Gaughan
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)
— T he Tonkawa Tribe of claimed the Tonkawa Tribe
Oklahoma has paid $2 mil breached management con
lion to a Las Vegas gaming tracts and suspended the
management company that com pany’s license without
alleged in a lawsuit the tribe cause and in violation of its
violated management agree own procedures. In connec
m ents w ith the com pany tion with the setdement, the
when it took over control of tribe dismissed efforts to sus
two tribal casinos in north- pend the gaming licenses of
central Oklahoma and barred Gaughan and two key em
com pany em ployees from ployees who had previously
been cleared of wrongdoing
them.
Gaughan Gaming, which by the National Indian Gam
had managed the Tonkawa ing Commission.
Gaughan officials said the
Indian Casino in Tonkawa
and the tribe's City Lights Ca company operated the Tribe’s
sino in N ewkirk near the casinos for more than three
Kansas border since 2007, years, making well in excess
sued the tribe in March al of $52 million for the tribe.
leging that tribal officials forc G aughan’s m anagem ent
ibly evicted Gaughan and its agreement said the company
employees from the casinos would receive 30 percent of
the casinos’ net profits as
and took over their control.
An attorney for Gaughan, compensation for its services.
Gaughan’s contracts with
Mike McBride of Tulsa, said
last week a settlement agree the tribe were set to expire in
ment was reached over the July at the Tonkawa Indian
past week in U.S. D istrict Casino and in Septem ber
Court in Oklahoma City, be 2012 at Native Lights.
John Gaughan, CEO of
fore a panel of the Ameri
can Arbitration Association the company, said issues that
and before the Tonkawa led to the dispute originated
Tribal Gaming Commission. with disagreem ents with a
“It was unfortunate that couple of tribal leaders.
“But we greatly appreci
Gaughan had to pursue liti
gation and arbitration. But ated the experience of work
ultimately Gaughan prevailed ing with the NIGC and help
and ju stice p rev aile d ,” ing the peo ple o f the
Tonkawa Tribe. We w ish
McBride said.
An attorney for the tribe, those tribal members nothing
Gary Pitchlynn of Norman, but the best in the future,”
said the tribe paid far less to Gaughan said.
Gaughan under the settle
G aughan becam e in
m ent agreem ent than the volved with the tribe’s casi
com pany w ould have re nos after they were shut down
ceived had it continued to by the NIGC in part because
manage the casinos.
it did not have an approved
“I don’t consider it a win management contract to op
for G aughan G am ing,” erate the Tonkawa Indian
Pitchlynn said. “They essen Casino. G aughan’s law suit
tially setded for far less than said the company helped the
what they were scheduled to tribe reopen the gaming op
erations.
make.”
He said the casinos have
The tribe was fined $1 mil
made more money and have lion by the Financial Crimes
been maintained better since E nfo rcem ent N etw ork,
the tribe hired its own employ which found that large cash
ees to manage them.
transactions at the Tonkawa
The casino management Bingo and Casino were not
company’s license was sus reported, as well as evidence
pended on Sept. 28, the same that organized crime figures
day the tribe ordered com had used the casino and off
pany employees out of the track betting operation to
casinos.
launder money, according to
“E veryth in g has been the tribe’s website. The law
good since then,” Pitchlynn suit said the tribe was placed
on probation.
said.
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