“Because Colville’s rights don’t extend to Pasco, this means they do not have the tribal right to open a casino in Pasco, and they never will,” he wrote. It says the Colville don’t have rights to the territory the Yakama ceded in the treaty.
The Yakama note the Palouse were signatories to its 1855 treaty with the U.S. Palouse tribal members still affiliate with both. They are generally concentrated in Western Washington and around Spokane and points north.īoth the Colville and Yakama claim the Pasco area through the Palouse Tribe.
Washington has 29, which are operated by 22 tribes. There are reportedly 474 tribal casinos in 29 states. The act authorized tribal casinos in states that don’t ban them, a group that includes Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The process for establishing tribal casinos is spelled out in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. The 16-step federal procedure is managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and handled through the Indian Gaming Commission. Lewis called the move by the Colville “upsetting” in a letter to the Herald, after it wrote about the fee-to-trust news. The Colville recently confirmed they initiated the development process by submitting a request to transfer 184 acres near Pasco’s King City Truck Stop into a federal trust. We only have one,” Gerald Lewis, chair of the Yakama Nation, told the Herald, referring to Legends Casino & Hotel in Toppenish.
