Red Lake tribal council rejects Pawlenty’s gambling plan

04/25/2005

Pat Doyle, Star Tribune
April 26, 2005

Signaling a deepening erosion of support among Indians for the governor’s latest gambling plan, the Red Lake tribal council today rejected joining the state and Canterbury Park race track in a casino venture in Shakopee.

The decision, by a 9-0 vote, follows a similar announcement last week by the Leech Lake band. If those decisions stand, they would dramatically reduce expectations of the number of Indians who would benefit from a state-sponsored casino.

Red Lake and Leech Lake still support an earlier casino proposal involving tribes and the state, but that plan stalled in the Legislature. In an effort to find a winning strategy, Gov. Tim Pawlenty helped merge that proposal with a racino plan by Canterbury Park to put two casinos at the track.

“We don’t support the merger,” Red Lake tribal treasurer Darrell Seki Sr. said today. “Period, no merger with Canterbury.”

In proposing a state-tribal casino deal earlier this year, Pawlenty touted it as a way to distribute some profits to the Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth bands, saying they made up about 85 percent of Chippewa tribal members and, because their reservations were remote, hadn’t benefited much from Indian gambling.

White Earth leader Erma Vizenor said her band is willing to consider a casino deal with the state that includes Canterbury. “It’s probably the only option we have right now,” she said today, adding that the decisions by Red Lake and Leech Lake probably wouldn’t prompt White Earth to reconsider its stance.

If White Earth is the only band willing to participate in a casino deal with Canterbury, it would benefit about 50 percent of Minnesota’s Chippewa tribe members.

There was no immediate reaction from the governor’s office to Red Lake’s rejection of a deal with Canterbury.