A group of homeowners in Birchwood have filed a lawsuit against the Native Village of Eklutna over a small-scale casino planned near Anchorage. The tribal gaming hall would be built on about eight acres of land, a few miles off the Birchwood exit on the Glenn Highway.
Sharon Avery, the acting head of the federal National Indian Gaming Commission, was also named in the lawsuit. Earlier this year, Avery signed off on the tribe’s plans to build the project on a Native allotment leased from the Ondola family.
“There’s a lot of horses and dog mushing, and that kind of activity out here,” said Debbie Ossiander, who lives about a mile from the site.
Ossiander is co-chair of the Birchwood Community Council and supports the lawsuit. She says the council worries that the Eklutna Tribe's project will destroy the rural character of the area.
“People are fearful of what kind of a traffic impact that would engender. It would be a draw certainly,” Ossiander said. “People would drive from Anchorage and all over the valley to come to this locale.”
Ossiander says there are some other big unknowns, like the impact of drainage from the casino’s parking lot into nearby Peter’s Creek, a salmon spawning stream. Ossiander says she’s also frustrated about the lack of information about the project.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of eight people who live in the Birchwood Spur Road neighborhood, next to the proposed gaming hall. They are represented by attorney Don Mitchell, a longtime opponent of tribes in Alaska.
Mitchell would not comment for this story, but his lawsuit questions Eklutna’s tribal status as well as the existence of tribes in Alaska.
Aaron Leggett, the president of the Native Village of Eklutna, said in a statement that the litigation is disappointing.
He said Mitchell’s claim that there are no tribes in Alaska has repeatedly been rejected by the courts.
As for the complaints from neighboring landowners about the potential impacts on the Birchwood community, Leggett said the public will have a chance to comment on the project after a federal environmental review is completed.
The land in question is under federal control on a Native allotment awarded to Olga Ondola in 1963. It’s also within the Eklutna Tribe’s traditional territory.
In 2016, the Eklutna Tribe asked the U.S. Department of Interior to make the property eligible for gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. It also sought approval of the Tribe’s lease of the land from the Ondola family, but in 2018, the Department issued a decision against the Tribe and concluded that the property did not constitute “Indian lands.”
That decision was reversed earlier this year following a new interpretation of the law from Bob Anderson, the solicitor of the U.S. Interior Department.
Anderson, the agency’s chief legal officer, ruled that the Eklutna tribe has jurisdiction over the Ondola Native Allotment, which opened the door for the tribe to win approval from the National Indian Gaming Commission in July. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has not yet issued the final permit, pending an environmental assessment.
The lawsuit against the Eklutna Tribe cites a long legal history, going back to 1884. It cites past decisions from Congress and previous Interior Departments against tribes in Alaska.
Tribal proponents say the courts have long put those claims to rest. They point to a Federal Register which lists 574 tribes and Alaska Native entities, including the Native Village of Eklutna.
Tribal leaders like Richard Peterson say the lawsuit’s claims about the lack of tribal status in Alaska are ridiculous. Peterson is president of the Tlingit and Haida, the largest tribe in Alaska.
“When you attack tribes, you are attacking Alaska,” said Peterson, who called the lawsuit short-sighted.
He believes the community will benefit in the long run from the gaming hall, based on the Eklutna Tribe’s track record for environmental stewardship and its clean-up of abandoned military sites and other projects.
“They’re doing wonderful things for their community,” he said. “This has implications on all tribes. All 229 should get behind Eklutna,” Peterson said.
The Eklutna Tribe may face opposition from another quarter. Gov. Mike Dunleavy recently put out a list of priorities in preparation for the incoming Trump administration. One of those calls for reversing Anderson’s recent decision to greenlight the Eklutna Tribe’s proposed gaming hall.
Opponents of the project say Native allotments are not subject to state and local taxes and worry that they’ll have to shoulder the burden for paying for the potential impacts of the gaming hall, such as the need for increased public safety services and road upgrades. But supporters of the project say the Tribe could be an ally in bringing more services and road improvements to the area.
The Eklutna Tribe has said there will be two phases of the project, which will be called the Chin’an Gaming Hall. Chin’an means “thank you” in the Dena’ina Athabascan language.
On its website, the Tribe says it plans to open as a modest 50,000 square foot facility on about six acres of land. It would have no card or table games and but will start out with 350 to 550 electronic gaming machines and expand to 700. There would also be a full-service restaurant with plans to eventually apply for a liquor license.
Marnell Companies, a Las Vegas based firm run by the Marnell family, will design, develop and manage the gaming hall.
Supporters of the project say it will fit in with existing development, which includes an airport, railroad operations, a convenience store, a bar and a small wood panel manufacturing plant operated by Spenard Builders Supply.
The Tribe says it’ll use revenues from the gaming hall for scholarships, housing, healthcare, and cultural programs.
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