Clark County commissioners said Wednesday they will appeal the federal decision allowing the Cowlitz Indian Tribe to establish a reservation in Clark County and build a casino on it.
After meeting with county attorneys in executive session, commissioners voted 3-0 during a regularly scheduled meeting to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor Bronson Potter said the county’s appeal of the Dec. 23 decision by the Bureau of Indian Affairs will contend, among other things, that the BIA’s ruling violates Carcieri v. Salazar, a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
The decision restricted the federal government’s ability to take land into trust for tribes not under federal jurisdiction prior to 1934.
The Cowlitz Tribe was federally recognized in 2000.
Assistant Secretary of Bureau of Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk concluded the tribe was under federal jurisdiction from at least 1855. In granting the tribe’s 2002 application to take 152 acres into trust west of La Center, he said he relied on the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act.
“For purposes of our decision here, I need not reach the question of the precise meaning of ‘reorganized Indian tribe’ as used in the (Indian Reorganization Act), nor need I ascertain whether the Cowlitz Tribe was recognized by the federal government in the formal sense in 1934, in order to determine whether land may be acquired in trust for the Cowlitz Tribe,” Echo Hawk wrote.
According to plans submitted to the federal government, the plans include a $510 million casino-hotel complex.
After the Dec. 23 decision was announced, tribal Chairman William Iyall said the project would be built in phases, starting with a two-story casino that would have 134,150 square feet of gaming floor.
Iyall said Wednesday that the county’s decision to sue did not come as a surprise. He said the legal challenge could further delay construction, which isn’t expected to start for two years as plans are revised and financing is secured.
Iyall said he’s confident the BIA’s ruling will withstand the county’s legal challenge.
