http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=652557&category=&BCCode=
&newsdate=1/4/2008

A setback for Catskills casino plans
Decision curtails off-reservation gambling halls

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau
Last updated: 6:47 p.m., Friday, January 4, 2008

ALBANY The federal government on Friday denied applications from two tribes
trying to build casinos in the Catskills, saying their reservations are too
far from the Monticello-area project sites for tribal members to commute to
jobs.

The decision is potentially devastating to Gov. Eliot Spitzer's goal of
revitalizing a long-suffering area of upstate. It also puts in jeopardy the
potential for millions of dollars in new gambling revenues for the state
treasury.

Tribal officials blasted the long-awaited decision by Interior Secretary
Dirk Kempthorne's office on applications by the St. Regis Mohawk and
Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican tribes. It essentially kills the St.
Regis Mohawks' plan to build a major casino at the Monticello Raceway. The
project had previously received key approvals from the federal government
and Spitzer and was in place to go forward if the Interior Department
agreed to put almost 30 acres of land at the harness track into trust for
the project.

The department ruled that the site, some 350 miles south of the Akwesasne
Reservation that staddles the Canadian border, is too far to offer job
opportunities to tribal residents. And if the residents move away to be
closer to the casino, that would have "negative impacts on tribal life."

The decision says that financial benefits could outweigh the negative
results of a casino in Monticello, but the tribe has failed to calculate
that.

Lorraine White, one of the three Mohawk elected chiefs, said the Interior
Department's position will spur a series of lawsuits from tribes
nationwide.

The Stockbridge-Munsee, based in Wisconsin, have planned a large casino in
the Town of Thompson. Tribal President Robert Chicks said he was
disappointed with the rejection of the land-to-trust application for the
project. Yet, he said the Stockbridge-Munsee have always preferred getting
a congressional resolution to its land claim lawsuit in New York.

In essence, Chicks' tribe has been willing to trade its claim to land in
central New York for the rights to build a casino in the Catskills and
seeks federal legislation authorizing a deal.

The Wisconsin Oneida have also been attempting a congressional resolution
to resolve the tribe's land claim, and the tribe wants the rights to build
a Catskills casino as one of the terms of settlement. It was not among the
30 tribes that have been awaiting Kempthorne's decision on applications to
take off-reservation land into trust for gaming purposes.

The Stockbridge-Munsee tribe has been pursuing both the trust land route
and the congressional route to achieve its goal.

The Mohawks have had limited options and the congressional route seems
blocked. Because of deep political divisions within the Mohawk tribe, the
tribal council would face steep challenges to getting permission to end its
land claim suit against New York by trading it for a casino deal in the
Catskills.

The elected chiefs focused on the land-to-trust deal and left aside the
land claim.

White said the casino is important to create revenues to the tribal
treasury for social welfare, infrastructure and other investments at the
impoverished reservation.

"Yet again the Bush Administration is standing in the way of economic
development efforts that have broad bi-partisan support across New York
State," said Spitzer aide Christine Pritchard. "This ill founded decision
will hamper New York's ability to build the economy of a distressed region
of the state and deprive Indian nations a much needed path toward economic
security."

Jeffrey Gordon, a Division of the Budget spokesman, said that the decision
would have no financial plan impact because budget planners could not count
on revenues from unbuilt facilities.

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at
jodato@....