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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2020)
6 JUNE 15, 2020 Smoke Signals Siletz Tribe submits application to build casino north of Salem By Dean Rhodes Smoke Signals editor SALEM – The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians has filed an application with the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Indian Gaming in Washington, D.C., to build a casino north of Salem. “I can confirm that the applica- tion was submitted and is in the very early stages of review,” said Paula Hart, director of the Office of Indian Gaming, in an e-mail. The Siletz Tribe most recently proposed a 140,000-square-foot inter-Tribal casino north of Salem in May 2017 that would be built on a 20-acre trust land parcel near In- terstate 5 at the Portland Road NE exit. They predicted it would create 1,500 full-time jobs and generate $184.5 million in revenue. The Siletz proposed that revenues would be split with 25 percent go- ing to the state, 25 percent to their Tribe, and 50 percent divvied up be- tween the other eight federally rec- ognized Tribes in Oregon – slightly more than 6 percent per Tribe if split evenly. The website created to promote the project, www.oregon- tribes.com, is still active. However, the new proposal would be a Siletz-only casino after objec- tions from others Tribes scuttled the previous project. Details about the proposed casino are not known and calls to Siletz Tribal Chairwoman Dee Pigsley were not returned. Grand Ronde Tribal lobbyist Justin Martin said in 2017 that a casino off Interstate 5 near Sa- lem would be “devastating” to the Grand Ronde Tribe’s Spirit Moun- tain Casino, which is currently the closest gaming enterprise to the Salem market. The Siletz Tribe’s Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City is 26 miles farther away from Salem than Spirit Mountain. Proposals for a north Salem casino from the Siletz Tribe date back to the 1990s and also faced strong opposition then. A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 1997 upheld a governor’s ability to limit or deny gaming facilities in urban areas and then-Gov. John Kitzhaber was opposed to building casinos off-Reservation. The Siletz Tribe would need ap- proval from the Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown before proceeding. The state’s current gaming policy remains one casino per Tribe on Reservation land. An e-mail to Brown’s current press secretary, Elizabeth Merah, was not answered regarding the Siletz proposal. The Coquille Indian Tribe, which was seeking to build a casino on land it owns in Medford, was re- cently turned down by the federal government over concerns that included the coastal Tribe being too far away from its homeland. Meanwhile, the Siletz and Grand Ronde Tribes are working together to finally develop the nearby 15.7- acre Chemawa Station property, which the two Tribes have owned since 2002. Grand Ronde Tribal representa- tives declined to comment on the Siltez Tribe’s new casino proposal. Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians has filed an application with the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Indian Gaming to build a casino on this 20- acre parcel off Interstate 5 north of Salem at the Portland Road NE exit. Graphic created by Samuel Briggs III Afterhours health line Tribal members can contact the Afterhours Health Line for questions about health care concerns you may have when the clinic is not open. You can reach the Afterhours Health Line by calling 503-879-2002 and follow the prompts. The Afterhours Health Line will coordinate care and communicate with Grand Ronde Health & Wellness Center providers. Ad by Samuel Briggs III