OK, so would someone please clue me in on the Gorge casino fight.

I see OSPIRG and Dan Lavey teaming up against Kulongoski and the Warm Springs tribe.

Basically, I despise casinos anywhere owned by anybody, but I'm suspicious when I see "Tell Governor Kulongoski...." ads on TV coming from a group with Lavey's name attached.

The Warm Springs tribe owns property outside of Hood River. They've threatened to build a casino there. They own the land, they can pretty much do that if they want. Hood River does not want a casino. It is some of the prettiest land in the gorge. Warm Springs offered to swap that land for land in Cascade Locks & build the casino there. Cascade Locks would dearly love a casino. The problem is that Cascade Locks is only about 30 minutes from downtown Portland. The other tribes are afraid that would pretty much suck the business away from their casinos since Portland is the largest populated area in Oregon. Kulongoski is pretty much damned if he does & damned if he doesn't. When he ran for gov he said he was against a casino in the gorge, but reality bites. If he doesn't approve this Warm Springs will build it in Hood River.

If someone has another take I would like to hear it.

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Doesn't Hood River have some kind of land-use control over what goes into their town? Or has this been lost to Measure 37?

I think Cascade Locks is a pretty spot, too. Really hate to see them allow a casino there.

like all of them v. Warm Springs. Also, throw in Friends of the Gorge, the Restaurant Association (they represent a lot of bars & restaurants that have video poker & are afraid their profits might go down the drain-or out to Cascade Locks).

I doubt land-use laws would apply since Warm Springs owns the property in Hood River-it's part of their res.

Cascade Locks is a pretty place but they have zero industry. They're dirt poor. Most of the businesses are creaming their jeans thinking about a casino in itty, bitty Cascade Locks.

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I think it's sick to build a casino there. The Gorge is one of the most beautiful places we have here. To destroy it would be awful!

the gorge, but like I said reality bites. It's either in Cascade Locks that wants the casino or Hood River (which is way prettier, IMHO) that doesn't.

This will probably be held up in court for years. Also, the idea that Indian Tribes will all of a sudden start building casinos all over the state is ludicrous. This is a very unique case with a casino that owns land & is willing to swap.

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I'm the first to admit I'm uninformed about their situation and their options.

I just hate casinos.

Again, reality bites. They were given (for the most part) the absolute most worthless land, in the most absolute worthless places. Who woulda thunk the gorge would end up being the hot place? And in some areas (I'm thinking the Black Hills) as soon as something of value was found (gold) they were given the boot.

Have you ever traveled out 26 to Bend? Gotta tell you, you couldn't pay me to live in that hell hole. (I'm talking Hwy 26, not Bend)

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lousy location (except for the part in the Gorge, I guess). I used to like going to Kahneeta, but now I don't go there, because I'm turned off by the gambling.

Kahneeta is so far off of hwy 26 I swear the tribe lies about it. You'll see the signs "11 miles to casino". DH & I stopped in once (coming back from visiting family). We thought, what the hay? 11 miles? no big deal, let's go gamble away the children's inheritance. Well, 11 miles the way the crow flies. More like 20 on a narrow, winding road. What kind of living are they supposed to make out there.

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BTW, we won!

Too much to DU late at night!

Never was PURCHASED from the original owners who took excellent care of it for many centuries. I hate it that they now have to buy it back in small pieces, but in general it is the white's money going to the bank from the casinos! The Native Americans have for the first time begun to have dignity and pride once again and are building for themselves what the US government denied them for 500 years!
The Mill Casino Hotel here in Coos Bay has created jobs, housing for their people, a medical clinic and senior home with assisted living open to all.
Durn! I can only claim a smidgen of Native ancestry but, all is just a smidgen of this and that!

I don't begrudge the tribes the whites' money (or money from whatever whites are dumb enough to pour it into a slot machine). I wonder, though, whether the casino business is the best way to go in terms of economic development.

I don't see major high-wage-job-generating industries developing in places such as Las Vegas. It seems to me that most jobs in the casino industry pay poorly and do not help people attain skills that will really pay off in the long run.

Maybe it's a valuable intermediate step just to get some capital in the door, but I don't tend to think of the gaming industry as a good route to long-term economic success.

Why should we be encouraging hundreds of thousands of vehicle trips up the gorge, creating traffic, pollution, etc. not to mention wasting fuel in getting there. I say put the thing here in Portland let all the tribes share in the proceeds & spare the countryside.

Indian casinos can only be built on Indian land e.g. the res.

I posted earlier the chances of this going through are a bit slim. The Secretary of Interior (whose name I forget) has approved only 3 casinos off the res. This would be a very, very special case only because the Warm Springs tribe own land in Hood River which doesn't want the casino & are willing to swap in Cascade Locks which does want it.

The whole Indian Casino thingy goes back years when some Native American went to law school, came back & started looking through the treaties & realized that they were a sovereign nation, which meant that they had the rights to do on their own land (res) what they chose. To get this through the courts, Native Americans agreed that they wouldn't make their casinos like Vegas-no alcohol at tables, using script, & only on Indian land.

As far as letting all the tribes share in the proceeds; hah. Try telling that to Warm Springs. Fat chance they're gonna share. They've already made a shit load of concessions to get this through.

given the choice of a casino in:

a) the scenic Columbia Gorge or
b) the Portland metro area

which would you choose ? I am hoping that the Interior dept will put the kibbosh (?) on this project, though.

I live in the gorge.

Unfortunately the metro area OR the gorge aint the options. The options are Cascade Locks OR Hood River. I gotta go with Cascade Locks if those are my only two choices.

Actually, there's a fairly even chance the Sec'y will approve it since Kulongoski has OKed it & Warm Springs will give up all rights to their land in Hood River, but it could take years. DH says no, there'll be casino by this time next summer. We'll see who gets to do the "I told you so happy dance" but neither of us will be happy.

Believe me, I'm not happy about this, just realistic.



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They likely changed this, but the Indian was supposed to be able to reclaim lands vacated by the US Government. A few years ago they did that on Alcatraz and although they were removed, they were vindicated.
As I understand it at the present, the military establishment in Portland is to be closed and vacated!
One more thing, no property or other taxes are owed by Indian Nations and certainly they have that right more than all the religious lands, businesses and properties!

PS The Native American Indian with all the tribal lands would fit in less than half the amount of land in all the hundreds of church's free tax ownership!

The tribes guaranteed they only wanted their sacred burial land in Florence too, then bought some adjacent land and put in a casino. I didn't oppose it, but it leads me to think there's ways they could put a casino in Portland if they wanted to.

The Cascade Lockes location seems okay to me, isn't it an old lumber mill site or something?

The sad part of these casinos is that the local communities generally don't work with the tribe to get something that will be more than machines in a box. There's ways to make them fit in with communities better, it just doesn't get done. And letting them have hotels connected, dumbest move of all. But 13 casinos isn't exactly Vegas anyway.