Tlingit-Haida provides a variety of social services in Southeast Alaska, and like many social service organizations in the state it is deeply worried about funding given the state government revenue crisis.
Outside, Indian casinos have proven among the biggest of those economic engines. But casino development in Alaska was long blocked by the lack of "Indian country" on which to build. That changed when Gov. Bill Walker decided to end state efforts to block the Secretary of the Interior from taking Native lands into trust.
Indian Country is coming soon to Alaska and with it the opportunity for casino development somewhere.
Alaska's first Indian gambling casino appears to be in the works.
National Indian Gaming Commission records indicate a gaming ordinance for the Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska was approved on May 13.
Juneau City-Borough records show the Council owns at least an acre of land in what is still called the "Indian Village" next to the state office building in the heart of the state's capital city. Tlingit-Haida also owns considerable property elsewhere in the Juneau area.
Juneau is a hugely popular summer tourist town where many have long thought a casino would prove a rousing success. The impediment to construction, up until now, has been the lack of "Indian country" in the 49th state.
That barrier to development was removed on Aug. 15 when Alaska Gov. Bill Walker announced the state would not fight the federal government over a proposal to begin creating tiny Indian nations within Alaska by taking Native lands into trust. The state and tribes had been battling over this issue for more than a decade.
The Kenaitze Indian Tribe proposed a casino on the Kenai Peninsula in 2005 only to be rejected by the Gaming Commission. It said the tribe lacked sovereign Indian property on which to build.
The Kenaitzes were at the time stymied by Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. Recognizing the economic failure of Indian reservations in the lower 48, the settlement between the U.S. government and the first Alaskans set out to pave a new way forward.
Instead of pushing Native Americans onto reservations, Uncle Sam agreed to settle their claims to all of Alaska by paying them nearly $1 billion, granting them title to 44 million of acres of land of their choosing, and helping them set up profit-making corporations intended to help grow economic opportunities.
At the time ANCSA was written, no one could have guessed the plan would foreclose what was destined to become the biggest economic opportunity ever for American Indians – gambling.
Tlingit-Haida still has hurdles it must clear to get into the gaming business. It would appear to need to move lands into trust, and according to its commission-approved gaming ordinance, negotiate a "tribal-state gaming compact duly approved by the Secretary of the Interior or (obtain) gaming procedures issued by the Secretary of the Interior" before instituting Class III gaming.
Class III gaming includes the most valuable casino businesses: slot machines, blackjack, roulette, baccarat and craps. States have limited authority to regulate this sort of Indian gambling.
Some states tried to stop Indian casinos by refusing to negotiate Class III gaming compacts or by putting up unreasonable demands in negotiations, but that ended when the Secretary of the Interior was granted the power to override states deemed to be acting in bad faith and directly grant permission to tribes, according to the National Gambling Impact Study.
In Alaska, Interior is already well accustomed to over-riding the wishes of the state in favor of Native entities.
Federal-state-Native relations are complicated everywhere these days, the Gambling Impact study noted.
Akiachak, the Kuskokwim River village in Western Alaska that led litigation to allow Alaska Natives to put land into trust, is an Alaska village wanting one of those "places of protection from outside forces." Tribes in other places – Alaska has 224 tribes, one for almost every community – might, however, be more interested in the opportunities for capitalism that casinos present.
More than three decades ago, Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott began his rise to power in a meeting with Southeast Alaska Native leaders in the Juneau Indian Village where they plotted the overthrow of then Sealaska Regional Native Corporation President John Borbridge. Mallott, who questioned the late Borbridge's business skills, eventually became the head of Sealaska and led it to financial success before shifting his attention to politics, then to Native rights, and then back to politics.
A little over a month ago, Anchorage attorney Don Mitchell, a man once revered in the Native community as the legal counsel for the Alaska Native Federation and now widely reviled in the Native community for questioning what has happened since the passage of ANCSA, predicted the likely outcome on the state level and warned that Indian casinos might be coming soon.
But even he missed the fact that at least one Native group was already a step ahead of the game.
"…When the state next loses," Mitchell wrote in the Alaska Dispatch News on July 2, "one of the most likely outcomes will be the arrival of Indian casinos.
As in Duluth, there are lands in Anchorage that have in the past been eyed as possible sites for a Native casino.
As the book title makes obvious, he has some issues with Indian gaming, but he is not alone.
"Small tribes with land close to big cities have done well," The Economist reported in July of last year. "Yet a new study in the American Indian Law Journal suggests that growing tribal gaming revenues can make poverty worse.
That wouldn't be good news in Alaska where some tribes are already plagued by extreme poverty. But the casinos themselves might not be the poverty-driving factor so much as how the Native groups running the casinos distribute the profits.
The process to have land go into Trust is long as it calls for agreements with the "neighbors". Will be interesting to see as of now only a few tribes here have had the Trust land approved. He is wrong about Metlakatla. Was there in August and played the slot machines!
it's a class II, brenda.
Tlingit and Haida Central Council is loudly proclaiming on the their Facebook page that inaccurate information is being posted regarding their gaming plans and "that project predated and is not affected by the Akiachak litigation over tribal trust land acquisition and would not involve class III Indian gaming." What they fail to mention is they entered into a lease agreement on 2015 with the owners of a large native allotment near Eaglecrest.
The family had hoped to build a lodge on the site. It certainly sounds a potential casino location.
Liz: Someone has obviously been working on this more than I have. I have no real idea of what Tlingit-Haida's plan. I've reached out to them; they have not responded. They pretty clearly have an ordinance that would allow for Class III gaming, but that doesn't mean they have to start a casino. It would probably be helpful for everyone if instead of just saying the information out there is inaccurate, they simply outlined their plan. I'm certainly not trying to report inaccurate information, but from what you and others have said it would appear someone, somewhere has at least talked about the casino possibility, and I know when I was a reporter in Juneau a lifetime ago, people sometimes talked about the casino possibility. It has come up many time in regards to "Indian country" lands in Alaska, and the problem, as outlined in the story, was that there were no Indian country lands. That is now changing.
Not having time to do research makes this article sort of poor. Metlakatla does in fact operate a casino, it is a class II gaming casino. But not just pull tabs and bingo like your sort of implying. There are slot machines that have been operating going on 11 years now. So obviously slot machines were approved.
i'll take your word for it if you say Metlakatla has slots, but why is it obvious they were approved? i've seen slots elsewhere in this state, and they certainly weren't approved. that said, it would appear we're in agreement that Metlakatla, a community of 1,400 on Annette Island a 15-mile boat ride from Ketchikan (most people are probably unaware of this) has a class II license. we can quibble and quabble over class II versus class III, but i don't want to. i'm not trying to slight Metlakatla. but when people read "casino" they think Vegas or Reno or at least Menominnee (http://www.menomineecasinoresort.com/) or Silver Slipper (http://silverslipper-ms.com/), and unless Metlakatla has really changed since i was last there (which was admittedly decades ago) i can't imagine a full on casino of that nature. if there is, post a link. i'd love to se photos. i couldn't find a website, but did find a pretty up-to-date reference to the "Metlakatla Bingo Hall, which boasts dozens of brand new electronic Bingo machines tied in to a national gaming system that makes huge payouts possible." that's clearly gambling, but is it really what the average person would think of as a casino?
Metlakatla ak has had a casino for years now. Get story right.
An NIGC Class II ordinance, according to the NIGC website, permits "bingo; when played in the same location as bingo – pull tabs, lotto, punch boards, tip jars, instant bingo, other games similar to bingo, and non-house banked card games authorized or not explicitly prohibited by the state in which the tribal operation is located. All other games are Class III, except for certain social or traditional forms of gaming. Class III games include, but are not limited to the following: baccarat, chemin de fer, blackjack, slot machines, and electronic or electromechanical facsimiles of any game of chance." Metlakatla did some years ago try to get permission for some sort of casino-style electronic bingo as a Class II, but that was denied. the community appealed. i'm not sure what ever happened with the appeal, and i don't have time to research it now. but maybe someone else reading here does. crowd-scource reporting is always welcome.
Metlakatla has slot machines so if falls under ClassII. Something that everyone fails to talk about is that Alaska is one of six Public Law 280 states (Metlakatla is excluded). Recent actions in the state by the state, due to budget woes, could signal the State making lots of deals to dump off their jurisdiction under PL280. Believe there is an "escape clause" allowing the six states do this. For years there has been bantering back and forth about how Metlakatla fairs in a PL280 state. I read it as being excluded and having the same rights and jurisdiction as reservations in non-pl280 states.