Lining up against the Tohono O'odham, Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday filed legal papers urging a federal judge to block a bid by the tribe to annex land near Glendale to build a casino.
Brewer, though her legal counsel Joe Kanefield, said the decision by the U.S. Department of Interior to give the go-ahead for the tribe to make the parcel part of its
"Although Congress may create Indian reservations, it goes too far when it chooses particular state land for a new reservation and disregards the objections of the state and municipality where the land is located," the governor's legal brief says.
In filing the papers, Brewer joined with several other Republican state lawmakers in urging U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell to overturn the annexation. Campbell already has agreed to let legislative leaders intercede in the case, now set for trial on Feb. 17.
But Brewer's opposition to the annexation -- and specifically, the planned casino on the site -- is not new.
In January, the governor wrote to tribal Chairman Ned Norris Jr., saying it was never the intent of voters when they approved expanded tribal gambling in 2002 to have casinos anywhere other than on reservation lands as they existed at that time. She said that makes it inappropriate to have a $550 million casino, hotel and shopping center on land near the University of Phoenix stadium.
Norris, however, rejected the governor's call to abandon the plan saying the tribe has spent "a great deal of time and resources on this site."
He also noted that the 135 acres the tribe already has purchased were authorized by Congress in 1986 after the federal government built a dam on the Gila River and flooded nearly 10,000 acres of reservation land. Norris said that forced the relocation of the San Lucy District community "to a tiny parcel where economic development was not possible."
"With all due respect, we will not be relocated again," Norris wrote at the time.
In her legal brief, Brewer said giving the land reservation status would create law enforcement headaches.
Under federal law, states can only enforce criminal laws on reservations when both the perpetrator and the victim are not Indians. Instead, the responsibility for handling other crimes falls to both the tribes and the federal government.
"Consequently, the state would be unable to provide emergency responses to criminal activity without the consent of the tribe," Brewer said. She also said reservation status keeps the state and local governments from regulating zoning and land use to protect nearby homes and schools.
But the governor has a particular objection to plans for a casino, citing that 2002 ballot measure pushed by tribes to give them the exclusive right to operate casino gaming in exchange for giving the state a share of the profits. Brewer said there was a "commitment" in that measure that no new casinos would be built in cities.
The Tohono deny that the 53 acres of land the Interior Department agreed to let become part of the reservation is within Glendale. That issue, still making its way through the courts in a separate lawsuit, is significant because the 1986 law allowing the tribe to purchase replacement lands specifically said they had to be in unincorporated areas.
Tribal officials also have said that 2002 ballot measure specifically had a provision to deal with newly acquired reservation lands.
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