The Department of the Interior has a track record of hostility to “off-reservation gaming”.\u00a0 It struck down a St. Regis Mohawk Tribe compact for a casino in the Catskills several years ago because it was deemed too far from the tribe’s reservation near Massena.<\/p>\n
At the very end of 2010, the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans and then-Governor David Paterson thought they had all their ducks in a row this time: a land claim resolution in central New York, a postage-stamp sized reservation created in the Catskills, and months of close consultation with Interior.<\/p>\n
The New York Times is reporting all that may come to naught.\u00a0 The paper cites the Stockbridge-Munsees’ own documents to say Interior is likely to reject their Catskills casino compact:<\/p>\n
In January, according to the tribe, federal officials suddenly expressed misgivings about the viability of the tribe\u2019s land claim and the ability of the Interior Department<\/a> to approve it without Congressional action, as the tribe wanted. In a Jan. 31 letter to the department, a lawyer for the tribe acknowledged that department officials had told him it was \u201chighly unlikely\u201d the officials would change their views.<\/p>\n
The Interior Department has done \u201can about-face,\u201d said Kimberly Vele, president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohicans.<\/a> If the agreements are rejected, Ms. Vele said, the tribe will resume its fight for the land in Madison County.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n