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The City of Glendale also wants to continue a 500+ year old tradition of us White folks screwing the Indians by shutting down the Indian casino which will compete with the city of Glendale's corporate welfare programs to the Arizona Cardinals and Phoenix Coyotes.

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Proposed West Valley casino heads to court

3-judge panel to hear dispute over tribe's plan near Glendale

by Cecilia Chan - Apr. 15, 2012 10:53 PM

The Republic | azcentral.com

Legal challenges have volleyed back and forth since a southern Arizona tribe unveiled plans for a West Valley casino three years ago, but a key case in the fight will move forward today in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Gila River Indian Community, which currently operates the only West Valley casino, Glendale and top state lawmakers are appealing a federal decision to take the Tohono O'odham-owned land into the reservation system.

A lower court last year upheld the U.S. Department of the Interior's decision to grant reservation status to the 54 acres near Glendale's sports and entertainment district.

A three-judge panel in San Francisco now will hear the matter, although a final decision could take months. After oral arguments, the median time for an Appeals Court decision was 11/2 months last year.

The Tohono O'odham Nation, in the wake of a congressional settlement to replace damaged tribal land, purchased the vacant property near Loop 101 and Northern Avenue in 2003.

Six years later, tribal leaders asked Interior officials to take the land into trust so they could build a casino, which must be on reservation land.

Opponents contend that Interior, in approving the tribe's request, trampled on state sovereignty by carving out a federal enclave.

Glendale resident Gary Hirsch, who is a party to the lawsuit, said the creation of the reservation despite local and state protest violates the U.S. Constitution's 10th Amendment. "I don't find that the Constitution has a provision for the federal government to take a jurisdiction from a sovereign state and give it to another party, in this case a sovereign nation," Hirsch said.

The lower court ruled that Interior's decision to take the land into the reservation system was a valid exercise of the power over Indian affairs that the Constitution delegated to Congress.

Opponents also argue that Interior should have first determined if the land was eligible for gaming under federal law.

Federal law bans gaming on reservations created after 1988, apart from a handful of exceptions. The Tohono O'odham believe their situation qualifies for one of those exceptions.

Opponents, namely the Gila River tribe, also said Interior failed to address whether the Tohono O'odham had already exceeded their cap when they purchased the land near Glendale.

The tribe, through a 1986 congressional act, was given $30 million to purchase 9,880 acres to replace reservation land near Gila Bend damaged by a federally built dam. The tribe bought 135 acres near Glendale and opted to initially put a third of the land into trust.

The Tohono O'odham, in their court filings, said the congressional act limited the total amount of land that could be taken into trust, not how much could be purchased. But they assert the whole argument should be dismissed because no one raised it during Interior's administrative process.

Glendale also said the tribe's property falls within its exterior boundaries and thus doesn't meet the congressional settlement, which required the replacement land be in an unincorporated part of Maricopa, Pima or Pinal counties. Glendale considered the land part of its planning area and had it eyes on developing the site.

The Tohono O'odham and the Interior Department note the land is an unincorporated county island.

Most of last year's U.S. District Court ruling relied on the premise that a court may only set aside an agency decision if it is "arbitrary, capricious an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with law."

The appeal is just one part of the wrangling that surrounds the plans.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne last year filed suit in U.S. District Court, saying the Tohono O'odham plan would upset the balance of Indian gaming in Arizona and harm the state's gaming compact with tribes. Horne is joined by Gila River Indian Community and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.

Glendale political leaders express several reasons for opposing the reservation and the resort-and-casino project. They say it would cost the city for infrastructure, that the city would have no control over tribal land and that a tax-exempted reservation would unfairly compete with area merchants.

Tribal leaders have said that they would pay for infrastructure such as utilities and that the casino would provide jobs and attract visitors to the area.

Tohono O'odham Chairman Ned Norris Jr. on Friday said he was confident of "another favorable ruling."