short stories / By Heidi Walters

Wiyot Winnings

(May 1, 2008)  On Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a compact with the Wiyot Tribe that would enable the tribe to gather $3-5 million a year in gaming revenue from a tribal casino in Madera County, in the Sierra Foothills. The casino, to be developed and managed by Station Casinos of Nevada, would be built on land that would be taken into trust for the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians. The governor signed a compact with the North Fork Rancheria as well on Monday, in a joint ceremony with the Wiyot.

At first glance it seems odd that, so quickly on the heels of the Big Lagoon Rancheria’s failed long-distance gambling venture in Barstow, the governor would be happily signing yet another compact involving a Humboldt County tribe’s hooking up with a tribe far, far away.

But tribal officials involved in the arrangement between the Wiyot Tribe of Table Bluff in Humboldt County and the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians in Madera County say their deal is vastly different from the Barstow venture.

Big Lagoon, near Trinidad, and the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians, from the San Diego area, wanted to build two casino-resorts side by side on land hundreds of miles from either reservation. The governor had signed their compacts, eager to stop Big Lagoon from building a casino on its lagoon. The deal fell through this January after the Department of the Interior refused to take the land into trust for Los Coyotes, saying the site was too far from the tribes’ reservations.

The North Fork Rancheria, on the other hand, hopes to have land taken into trust that sits just 35 miles from its official reservation, but which the tribe says is squarely within the Mono Tribe’s extensive ancestral territory. And North Fork would be the only one building a casino there. In the Wiyot’s compact, the tribe waives its right to pursue gaming in any form. It won’t help run the casino, nor work for it in any way or put any revenues into it. But it will share in a percentage of the North Fork’s net winnings — a percentage that will increase as the winnings increase. The state also will get a share.

Similar to Big Lagoon’s Barstow bid, however, was the fact that protecting a pristine environment was key to the governor’s interest. Table Bluff is along the Pacific Flyway and overlooks Humboldt Bay Wildlife Refuge. The North Fork’s reservation is near Yosemite. They both wanted casinos — the Wiyot had been vying for a compact for a casino on Table Bluff since 1999.

Maura Eastman, Wiyot tribal administrator, said the tribe filed for the compact then because then-Gov. Gray Davis had said he wouldn’t consider new tribal compacts after 1999. But, she said, the tribe knew Table Bluff wasn’t ideal for a casino. “First of all, because of the location, which is on the flyway. And, it’s four miles off of the freeway, it’s next to the wildlife refuge, the roads would need significant changes.” Plus, she said, a casino would consume what little developable land was left of the 88 acres on the bluff. And three other casinos in the area had already been built or were in the works.

“But they also knew that building a casino is absolutely hands down the fastest way for an Indian tribe to have a really strongly successful economic development program,” she said.

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