How to resolve AdBlock issue? On Monday, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation and the Kletsel Dehe Band of Wintun Indians filed a lawsuit challenging the decision by the Department of the Interior to allow the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians to build its casino in Vallejo.
Scotts Valley’s $700 million, 400,000-square-foot mega casino complex, along with 24 homes and an administrative building, will be located on a 128-acre site near I-80 and Highway 37, as Lake County News has reported.
The suit filed by the Yocha Dehe and Kletsel Dehe tribes alleges multiple “fundamental” violations of federal laws meant to protect tribes and their ancestral lands.
One of their key arguments is that Scotts Valley has no documented cultural connection to Vallejo, and that allowing the casino approval to stand sets an ominous precedent that undermines tribal sovereignty and weakens the foundation of federal-tribal land policy.
They also argue that the Department of Interior misled them, refused to consult with them, cut short the environmental review process and ignored evidence of the significant environmental consequences on local tribes and the surrounding community.
The outcome, the tribes said in a Monday statement, was that they had no choice but to sue, and that the case was about more than a casino but “about protecting the integrity of the land-into-trust process and ensuring decisions are made fairly, lawfully, and based on true historical ties,” said Charlie Wright, chairman of the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation.
On Tuesday, Scotts Valley issued a statement from Tribal Chairman Shawn Davis in response to the lawsuit’s filing.
“This anti-competitive lawsuit was completely expected, and it doesn’t change our approach and commitment to the project. We are moving forward in collaboration with the local community just as we have been,” Davis said.
“The specious arguments raised in the lawsuit mischaracterize both the facts and the law. To try to avoid fair competition, the plaintiff is throwing whatever they can at the wall with their court filing, but it won’t stick. We are confident that the Department of the Interior followed the law in its thorough review of our application and that our tribal land will remain in trust. We plan to join the United States in defending and upholding this decision,” the statement continued.
“The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians is proud of the careful and lawful steps we’ve taken to restore a land base for our Tribe and to pursue opportunities to benefit our citizens and our neighbors for generations to come. We are 100-percent committed to advancing opportunity and prosperity for our tribal members and the surrounding community which will benefit from thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in wages and benefits,” Davis said.
As a result of the Department of Interior’s approval of Scotts Valley’s fee to trust application in January, “The land is now the sovereign homeland of the Scotts Valley Tribe,” according to Davis’ statement.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs defines a “fee to trust” land acquisition as “the transfer of land title from an individual Indian or federally-recognized Tribe to the United States, in trust, for the benefit of that individual Indian or tribe.”
Davis said a federal court previously affirmed Scotts Valley’s “longstanding historical connection to Vallejo,” as did the findings of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Department of Interior.
Studies conducted for the Bureau of Indian Affairs found the project would employ thousands of existing Vallejo and Solano County residents and generate a massive boost to the local economy, Davis said.
For more information on the opposition to the project visit www.protecttribalhomelands.com.
To learn more about the studies conducted and the proposed project from Scotts Valley’s perspective, visit: https://www.scottsvalleycasinoea.com/.
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