If Clark County citizens are following the premature development activities of the Cowlitz-Mohegan Casino at the I-5 La Center junction and reading the press releases in the local printed news, it could appear that the reservation and casino project is a done deal.

To think so would be a false conclusion and at variance with the facts of the matter. The rights of this tribe to “reservation” status at that site have not been determined. In fact, a federal appellate court is scheduled this month to hear an appeal of the right to build a casino.

The tribe, their Mohegan partners, and their attorneys certainly know this. It is therefore hard to believe a recent celebration was anything but a ruse to deceive the public.

A prudent individual will conclude the recent celebration and on-site construction activities are merely efforts to influence federal officials and the appellate court decision through the expenditure of millions of dollars and lots of press. This is nothing more than a sympathy play to the court as the tribe attempts to pander to the political atmosphere in Washington, D.C., and step around the transparency of the legal review process.

Here is some relevant information of which Clark County citizens should be aware:

• The casino is not a done deal. An appeal will be heard, and if won by opponents, no casino will be built on the La Center site. The decision can be appealed to the Supreme Court by either party. As The Columbian also reported, even the legal ability to have a workable sewer system is not a done deal.

• The big celebration was not a homecoming, despite what a headline in the Feb. 14 edition of The Columbian stated. Part of the marketing campaign is focused on making the public believe the Cowlitz is a homeless tribe.

But a recent review of their website (www.cowlitz.org) under the Cowlitz Town Hall Meetings indicates four different meeting sites this year other than La Center “for the convenience of our Tribal Members” — in Toledo, Fife, Longview and Tukwila. These “convenient” sites are an average of 80 miles north of the La Center site. In other words, La Center is not convenient and never was. The Cowlitz’s cemeteries, homes and friends are all up north. Contrary to their marketing, the La Center site was chosen only for its value for a casino.

• For eight years, various members of local communities and citizen groups have separately fought this project in various courts.

A mixed and unlikely aggregation of opponents consisting of the cities of La Center and Vancouver, Clark County, the La Center cardrooms, the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, Citizens Against Reservation Shopping, Identity Clark County, and private families who live in the area are opposing the casino on legal, environmental, historic rights, economic benefit, and traffic grounds.

These opponents are not pressing the fight because they are against redressing the manifold and historic wrongs done to American Indians. To the contrary, we are fighting because we strongly believe two serious wrongs don’t make a right.

Consistent studies show that these mega-casinos bring far more ills than benefits to any community. We are fighting for quality of living for Clark County and its citizens, noting that only about 3 percent of Cowlitz tribal members reside in any proximity to Clark County.

Until the opposition stops fighting or the alternatives for pressing the matter are exhausted, the casino is not a done deal.

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Paul Christensen and Newt Rumble represent Citizens Against Reservation Shopping in opposition to a proposed Cowlitz casino in La Center.