sNok signflz
JULY 1, 2020
9
Grand Ronde will not support Siletz Salem Casino proposal
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
The Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde will not support
the Confederated Tribes of Siletz
Indians’ proposal to build an
180,800-square-foot casino with
2,000 gaming devices and 45 table
games just north of downtown
Salem.
The Siletz Tribe filed their appli-
cation for the project on April 30
with the Department of the Interi-
or’s Office of Indian Gaming.
“The Siletz proposal would have
a devastating impact on Grand
Ronde and Spirit Mountain Casi-
no,” said Tribal Communications
Director Sara Thompson on Thurs-
day, June 25. “We cannot support
it. In the meantime, we’re continu-
ing to explore all of our options
in case the gaming landscape in
Oregon changes.”
The proposed Siletz casino com-
plex also would feature a 500-room
hotel, three restaurants, food court,
nightclub, sports bar and multi-pur-
pose events center that would
accommodate a 20,000-square-foot
ballroom. It also would feature a
2,000-car parking garage and two
surface parking lots.
The Siletz Tribe touts the eco-
nomic benefits of the proposed
casino in its application, estimating
that it would provide approximate-
ly 1,473 full- and part-time jobs in
the gaming facility, hotel, conven-
tion center, restaurants and related
amenities with 80 percent to 90
percent of the jobs being filled by
nonTribal members. It would cost a
projected $410 million to build and
support 2,373 construction jobs in
Marion and Polk counties.
Smoke Signals obtained a re-
dacted copy of the Siletz Tribe’s
application through the Freedom
of Information Act. Mostly propri-
etary financial information was
excised from the copy.
The proposed casino would be
located on 20 acres that has been
held in trust for the Siletz Tribe
since 2000 at the Portland Road NE
exit east of Interstate 5. The Siletz
Tribe currently operates the Hee
Hee Illahee RV Resort on a small
portion of the trust parcel.
In its application, the 5,502-mem-
ber Siletz Tribe says that despite
the success of Chinook Winds
Casino in Lincoln City over the
past 25 years, 24 percent of Siletz
households in the Siletz area still
have incomes below the federal
poverty level and that the Tribal
unemployment rate remains high
with the median household income
of Tribal members living in the
Siletz area 63 percent below that
of other Oregon households.
“Chinook Winds Casino faces
substantial competition from other
Tribal casinos closer to the major
urban areas in Oregon and from
the Oregon Lottery,” the applica-
tion states. “The current casino
supplements the Siletz Tribe’s total
budget, but does not come close to
meeting the Tribe’s unmet needs,
and the income from Chinook
Winds has plateaued in recent
years.”
The Siletz Tribe said it has iden-
tified almost $266 million in unmet
needs in Tribal programs, including
education, social services, health
care, substance abuse intervention
and Elder services.
“Revenue from the proposed
Salem Casino also will allow the
Siletz Tribe to pursue investment
opportunities in other business
ventures and further diversify its
economy, which would potentially
lead to additional revenues for
the Tribal government and more
job opportunities for Siletz Tribal
members,” the application states.
To quell possible opposition,
the Siletz Tribe said it will make
payments to the city of Salem for
infrastructure upgrades and has
met with other Oregon Tribes to
Bridging home, school and community…
Join us for a monthly discussions around:
Behaviors
Disabilities
School meetings
Support for parent involvement
in your child’s education
23
Self-advocacy-empower yourself and your child
IEPs, 504s, behavior
support plans
Monthly Family Gathering and Connections
Meetings will be held the last Thursday of every month.
Beginning on Jan. 30 from Noon-1 p.m. Adult Education Building
This is a family 23 friendly environment.
23
Raffle * Food * Beading
If you have questions feel free to contact :
Audra Sherwood 503-879-2069 or Lyndsey Stuckey 503-879-2095
discuss revenue sharing arrange-
ments “that would allow these rural
Tribes to share revenue.”
Proposals for a north Salem
casino from the Siletz Tribe date
back to the early 1990s and faced
opposition then. A 9th U.S. Cir-
cuit 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 opposed building casinos
off-Reservation.
In 2017, the Siletz Tribe proposed
building a casino at the site and
splitting the proceeds with the state
of Oregon and eight other federally
recognized Tribes in Oregon. The
Grand Ronde Tribe objected to that
proposal as well.
Grand Ronde Tribal lobbyist
Justin Martin also said at the time
that a casino off Interstate 5 near
Salem would be “devastating” to
the Grand Ronde Tribe’s Spirit
Mountain Casino, which is current-
ly the closest gaming enterprise to
the Salem market.
The Salem market has become
even more important to Spirit
Mountain Casino since the Cowlitz
Tribe opened its Ilani Casino ap-
proximately 17 miles north of the
Portland-Vancouver metropolitan
area in April 2017.
The Siletz Tribe would need ap-
proval from the Secretary of the
Department of the Interior and
Gov. Kate Brown before proceed-
ing with its newest proposal. The
state’s current gaming policy of one
casino per Tribe on Reservation
land would have to be shelved for
the Siletz to build.
In its application, the Siletz
Tribe states that it is currently in
discussions with the city of Salem
and Brown’s office regarding the
proposal.
An e-mail to Brown’s press sec-
retary, Elizabeth Merah, was not
answered regarding the Siletz
proposal.
The city of Salem responded to a
Bureau of Indian Affairs’ request
for comments on Thursday, June
25, requesting that an environmen-
tal impact statement in compliance
with the National Environmental
Policy Act be conducted to “under-
stand the full impacts of a project of
this scope and scale.” The response
did not state whether the city would
be in favor or opposed to the devel-
opment.
“The city of Salem’s response fo-
cuses on the technical development
aspects of the proposed gaming
project,” the city’s response states.
“Broader socio-economic and com-
munity impacts have not be consid-
ered in the city’s response.”
Approval from the federal gov-
ernment is not guaranteed. The
Coquille Indian Tribe was recently
turned down regarding its proposal
to build a casino in Medford par-
tially because of the distance – 165
miles – between Medford and the
Coquille’s headquarters near Coos
Bay. Salem is approximately 87
driving miles from Siletz’s head-
quarters on the Oregon coast.
Meanwhile, the Siletz and Grand
Ronde Tribes are working together
to develop the nearby 15.7-acre
Chemawa Station property, which
the two Tribes have owned since
2002. In its casino application, the
Siletz Tribe asserts that “there
is no evidence of any significant
historical or cultural connections
between the Grand Ronde Tribe
and the site for the proposed Salem
Casino.”
The Grand Ronde and Siletz
Tribal Councils were scheduled to
hold a council-to-council meeting
on Tuesday, June 23, but it was
canceled and will be rescheduled.