Utah tribe reconsidering Colorado casino proposal

According to The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Northern Ute Tribe is back with a renewed proposal for a casino gaming project in the tiny town of Dinosaur just across the Colorado border, but this time with the idea of buying some nearby federal land as well.

The twist could enable the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation to avoid the need for approval from Colorado’s governor to proceed with the gaming project.

The tribe has proposed to the Bureau of Land Management that it buy 2,453 acres of land between Dinosaur and the Utah border. That would connect its reservation lands in Utah to the land in Dinosaur where the project is proposed, averting the need for gubernatorial support, said Thomasina Real Bird, an attorney representing the tribe on the matter.

The BLM land purchase wasn’t a part of a previous proposal the tribe and town had floated back around 2011 and 2012.

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The new project would mean 300 to 400 jobs, said Dinosaur Mayor Richard Blakley

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The town council has endorsed the proposal. Blakley said the town of some 350 people is heavily dependent economically on oil and gas development. With things being slow for that industry, the town is struggling.

“If you’re not moving forward you’re dying. We’re seeing our businesses slowly going away,” Blakley said.

Ron Wopsock, a member of the tribe’s tribal council, said the tribe has been in the oil and gas business for probably more than 75 years, and would like to pursue gaming as another source of jobs and revenues, as has occurred elsewhere. Gaming isn’t allowed in Utah, which is why the tribe is pursuing a project in Colorado.

“Basically it’s in the talking stages — nothing solid,” Wop-
sock said of the proposal. “There would have to be support. I guess that’s the difficult part of it.”

Blakley has asked the town of Rangely for its backing. Rangely town manager Peter Brixius said town council members are interested in the proposal from the standpoint of jobs and economic development, but want answers to some questions before they decide whether to support it. One question they have is whether it has the support of Moffat County, of which Dinosaur is a part.

Moffat County Commissioner Frank Moe said the county had a brief introductory meeting with tribal representatives a few weeks ago but county commissioners haven’t yet had a chance to address it. Two of the county’s three commissioners are new to their jobs after November’s election.

Moffat County has been trying to diversify beyond its energy-based economy, and understands the need of its towns to diversify as well, he said.He said commissioners will need to discuss what Dinosaur wants to do and how it would fit into the county before taking a position on it.

As for acquiring the BLM land, the tribe submitted its proposal to that agency in December. BLM spokesman David Boyd said the agency is in the initial stages of reviewing the proposal with the tribe.

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If we move forward to formally consider the proposal, the public will have a chance to weigh in, Boydsaid

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The issue of selling off public lands has become contentious lately, with some conservationists and sportsmen fearing Congress might push for sales or land transfers to states or private interests.

In its letter to the BLM, the Ute Tribe notes that the Interior secretary has authority under the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act to sell land meeting certain disposal criteria.

Among those criteria, according to that law, are that a sale serves “important public objectives.” These include “expansion of communities and economic development, which cannot be achieved prudently or feasibly on land other than public land and which outweigh other public objectives and values,” such as recreation and scenic values served by keeping the land in federal hands.

The tribe says its proposal would let it expand its reservation and pursue economic development, both important public objectives.

While the law calls for public land sales to be carried out through a competitive bidding process, Congress also has authorized the direct, noncompetitive sale of public land when a competitive sale isn’t appropriate or in the public interest. This can include cases where land has been identified for transfer to state or local governments or nonprofit organizations. Boyd said an Indian tribe qualifies as a local government under those regulations. The Ute tribe is asking for a direct sale. The land couldn’t be sold for less than fair market value.

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The law also allows public land sales to be reviewed by Congress, but only when a sale involves more 2,500 acres — a threshold the tribe’s proposal falls 47 acres short of meeting

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Boyd said direct sales aren’t common in the BLM. If the agency decides to formally consider the tribe’s proposal, it would consider the land’s resources and values as part of that process. He said the acreage in question has no special designations, such as being identified as a wilderness study area or area of critical environmental concern.

Blakley said it sounds as if the BLM approval could take up to two years.

“It’s like I tell people, when I see the ground break then I know it’s here. Until then, you know, there’s a lot of red tape to it, it looks like,” he said.

Real Bird said that under federal law, if a tribe wants to begin offering casino gaming in a state, gaming needs to be permitted in that state.

Because Colorado allows some gaming, tribes are permitted by federal law to offer gaming in the state. But the Northern Ute Tribe’s last proposal would have required the concurrence of Colorado’s governor under the law because the gaming land the tribe wanted to buy in Dinosaur wouldn’t have been adjacent to its current reservation land.

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Real Bird said Colorado’s lieutenant governor at the time, Joe Garcia, voiced some concerns in a meeting about the proposal based on his experience having lived in New Mexico, where he felt there were too many casinos

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She said the tribe hasn’t reached out to the governor’s office since then to see if there’s a change in view, but Garcia’s concern at the time “forced the tribe to regroup and consider alternatives.”

Wopsock said the tribe heard concern at that time from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s chairman about the potential for a new casino taking business away from their gaming industry in the Four Corners area. While the Northern Utes decided not to push their proposal at that time, there are a lot of miles between the two reservations, Wopsock said.

If the Northern Ute Tribe bought Colorado land, it would apply to the Interior Department to hold it in trust for the tribe, in accordance with how tribal land is held, Real Bird said.

She said the new proposal is coming just from the tribe and town — not from any outside company interest.

“It’s a desire for the economy, for the benefit of that rural community as well as the tribe,” she said.