The tribes announced their plans Wednesday, including a proposal for a destination resort in the Florence area. And they propose selective logging of some timber stands.

In 1856, the tribes were moved off nearly 1.6 million acres from Coos Bay north past Florence. The tribes were held captive for almost 20 years at Yachats. They were officially restored in the early 1980s. They are the only remaining Oregon confederated tribes not to be compensated with a cash or land settlement, or both, according to Dick Clarkson, tribal council chairman. Doug Heiken, Western Oregon field representative of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, said he would prefer to have Congress appropriate money for the confederated tribes to buy private forests.

"We support the fair disposition of Native American tribes," Heiken said. "But the forests have been so mismanaged over the past that we are very reluctant to hand over these protected forest lands and then put them in a status where their protection is in question."

The tribes' forest proposal calls for the U.S. Forest Service to transfer title and management to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The bureau would hold and manage the land on behalf of the tribes. Existing public uses would remain. Forest management would continue under President Clinton's Northwest Forest Plan. More than 90 percent of the requested land is designated as having old-growth forest attributes in the Northwest Forest Plan.

Similar transfers have been done since 1982 for the Siletz, Grande Ronde and, most recently, the Coquille tribes. Those involved Bureau of Land Management forest transfers to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This is the first proposed Oregon management exchange of Forest Service land. The proposed transfer is detailed in the tribes' Reservation Plan and Forest Land Restoration Proposal. Besides forest land, the document describes an economic self-sufficiency plan based on ecotourism, secondary forest products and a specialty food line.

The tribes receive some federal assistance. Last year, however, assistance fell $4.3 million short of matching the tribes' $6.6 million tribal program needs. With their maximum requested 95,653-acre forest, the tribes predict that tree thinning and other forestry operations will earn $1.3 million by 2008. By that time, they also want to have a casino and destination resort, earning $3 million and $1.1 million, respectively. The resort would cost $10 million, which the tribes hope to finance through state and federal low-interest community development loans. Source: February 25, 1999, Oregonian, by John Griffith.

The tribal administrator of the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians refused to discuss the matter Monday. But state and federal officials confirmed that the tribe had asked the U.S. Department of the Interior to OK construction of a casino on a 100-acre parcel east of Florence, off Highway 126.

The tribe had proposed a gaming center in 1997 on the city's north end along Highway 101, but it withdrew the proposal after citizens spoke out against the plan. The tribe also briefly considered establishing a casino in Springfield but dropped that plan.

Kitzhaber has refused to allow the tribe to build anywhere other than on tribal land it owns in the Charleston area. That site, however, isn’t considered ideal because the Coquille Tribe already operates The Mill casino in nearby North Bend, which is more accessible to travelers and area residents.

“The community basically said they don’t want it here. That was then.
I don’t know if the community would react differently now.”

Stephanie Hanna, an Interior Department spokeswoman, said her agency is considering a request by the tribe, in which it has “asserted that they could be exempted from the act.”

The gaming act allows Indian tribes to build a casino on land acquired after 1988 over a governor’s objections only in narrow circumstances. For example, if property is acquired as a settlement to a land claim, or if land is federally acknowledged to be part of an initial reservation, or if land has been legislatively restored to a tribe.

The Charleston-based tribe apparently contends that because a small portion of the 100-acre Florence-area property qualifies under one of these exemptions, the entire parcel should be available for use as a casino. This smaller parcel, known as the Peterman site, was acquired because it has a small burial ground that belonged to the Siuslaw. The much larger, adjacent “Hatch parcel” was purchased more recently.

One of the key issues the Interior Department must decide is whether this larger parcel, too, has the same legal designation as the smaller property, which is “held in trust” by the tribe. Bob Polasky, tribal administrator for the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, would not accept a reporter’s phone call to discuss the matter. And the tribe’s Washington D.C., attorney, Dennis Whittlesey, declined to confirm or deny that the tribe was trying to establish a casino near Florence.

Kitzhaber plans to meet to meet today with Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt to discuss a range of issues and may bring up his opposition to the Coos’ request, said Chip Lazenby, Kitzhaber’s legal counsel. “It would be of great consequence to the governor if Interior were to rule in such a way that the governor’s authority is mooted,” Lazenby said. “It could have national repercussions.”

Kitzhaber opposes any effort by Oregon tribes to acquire land outside their reservations for casinos in part because he wants to hold the line on expansion of gambling in the state. He also fears that to do otherwise would send a message to tribes who are competing with one another for the biggest share of Oregon’s gambling dollars, said spokesman Bob Applegate.

“Basically if we do that, what it communicates to the tribe is, find the best piece of property you can find, bring it into trust and build a casino there,” Applegate said. “We don’t want top create a situation where it’s open season for the best available piece of land in downtown Portland or downtown Eugene.”

Former Florence mayor Roger McCorkle, now acting city manager, said that if the past is any indication, a casino wouldn’t be a welcome addition to the coastal city’s attractions. While some might welcome the boost it would give to the economy, the tribe’s effort to establish a casino there in 1997 generated strong opposition from residents who were concerned about traffic and other elements that a casino might attract.

“It was a real negative response,” McCorkle said of the tribes’ bid two years ago. “The community basically said they don’t want it here. That was then. I don’t know if the community would react differently now.” Source: February 23, 1999 Register Guard, by David Steves.