Feds to reconsider tribal ‘mega-casino’ planned for Vallejo; capital tribes cheer decision
U.S. Interior Department officials are reconsidering a controversial tribal mega-casino set to be built in Vallejo days after three Sacramento-area tribes filed federal lawsuits to halt the project.
The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians received approvals to go forward with the 615,000-square-foot casino development off of Interstate 80 in the waning days of the Biden administration despite vehement opposition from Bay Area residents, environmental groups and several Northern California tribes.
Federal officials confirmed their decision Friday.
“The Department of the Interior has temporarily rescinded the determination that the Vallejo site, held in trust for the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians of California, is eligible for gaming to ensure that all evidence has been fully considered,” the Interior Department said in the statement.
Officials added that interested parties have a May 30 deadline to submit evidence and legal analysis regarding Scotts Valley’s claim that the Vallejo property qualifies as “restored lands,” allowing the tribe to pursue gaming after the tribe’s federal recognition was restored in 1991.
Interior officials in the statement said the department will reevaluate the evidence and determine whether the Scotts Valley Band can open a gaming establishment on the site.
The planned development would sit 100 miles from the tribe’s ancestral Lake County homelands. Yocha Dehe leaders say the Vallejo property is on ancestral Patwin land, not Pomo homeland as the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo claim.
The United Auburn Indian Community of the Auburn Rancheria and the Yocha Dehe Indian Nation, the tribes behind the Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln and Cache Creek Casino Resort near Brooks in Yolo County, respectively, filed suits in D.C. federal court claiming the project and federal approvals in January violated the law.
The non-gaming Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation also took legal action seeking to reverse the approval.
Yocha Dehe leaders cheered the temporary halt on Friday.
Yoche Dehe officials in January slammed the project’s approval in January as a “shameful, illegal decision” that was made without consulting the Yocha Dehe and other tribes. The reversal was “about more than just a single project,” Yocha Dehe tribal chairman Anthony Roberts said in a statement reacting to the decision. “It is about ensuring all tribal voices are honored and heard.”
United Auburn leaders argued the project’s approval ran afoul of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and other statutes, adding that the department’s early January decision “set a dangerous precedent for tribes that have followed the established rules for Indian gaming.
The federal tribal gaming act requires tribal governments whose federal recognition has been restored to demonstrate their historic connection to any land they seek for gaming purposes.
“Nothing is more important than our ancestral homelands,” Roberts said. “To see them stripped away without consultation by the Biden Administration was extremely painful.”
He went on to thank Interior Secretary Doug Burgum for “beginning the process to right that wrong.”
Chairman Charlie Wright of the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation echoed the sentiment.
“Kletsel Dehe is pleased that the Department of the Interior appears to be taking our concerns seriously, and we look forward to participating in a fair, transparent reconsideration process.”
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