For months the Los Coyotes Band of Indians and the crew working for its billionaire Detroit developer Marian Ilitch (Barwest) have been trolling the State Capitol, trying to convince legislators in Sacramento that it would be “impossible” to build a casino on their San Diego Reservation; at the same time, the Santa Ysabel Tribe (Los Coyotes’ neighbor) has been hard at work proving it can be done!
This week the Santa Ysabel Resort and Casino celebrated its grand opening. The $27 million, 35,000-square-foot project has 349 slot machines and was financed with a bank loan guaranteed by the Yavapai-Apache Nation of Arizona.
The Santa Ysabel reservation is located less than 10 miles from the Los Coyotes Reservation (nearly the same drive time from Los Angeles).
hhhmmmmm …Perhaps what Los Coyotes’ leaders and Barwest representatives mean to say is they prefer the financial model associated with their plans to build two side by side full-blown Las Vegas like “off-reservation” casino resorts, and the opportunity to develop a broader destination resort community surrounding the casinos in Barstow – alongside I-15 highway halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
04.11.07
Santa Ysabel casino opens
By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer
SANTA YSABEL INDIAN RESERVATION -- It's not the biggest and it's not the closest, but the Santa Ysabel Resort and Casino, which opens to the public today, has an enviable view of Lake Henshaw and the surrounding mountains.
Tribal leaders said Wednesday they hope the scenic beauty of the remote, northeastern part of the county will attract visitors to generate enough revenue to help the band's 700 members climb out of poverty...
Vice Chairwoman Brandie Taylor said the casino will help create opportunities for her young son and everyone in the tribe.
"This is an avenue not only for him, but all the members of the tribe to have an education, to have infrastructure, electricity -- to have a future," she told a cheering crowd.
The facility, designed to look like a mountain lodge, has a 150-seat buffet restaurant, an entertainment stage and brewery-style bar...
For years, the Santa Ysabel band, near Julian, watched other North County tribes build mega-casinos with large hotels and luxury resorts. It passed on an opportunity to sign an agreement, or compact, with the state in 1999 to allow gambling on its 15,000-acre reservation.
Four years ago, several new tribal council members who favored building a casino were elected. They negotiated one of the last compacts under Gov. Gray Davis. The agreement included more stringent requirements...
Santa Ysabel Chairman Johnny Hernandez, 54, said opening the casino will help build better roads on the reservation, provide health care for members, education for children and a center for seniors.
"We just got open and now we got to pay our bills," he said. "But we've got to take care of our tribal community."
(Full Coverage)
6 comments:
What it comes down to is greed, the Coyotes could of had a casino on their reserevation. However they want a big casino with thousands of slots. And to get it they are willing to step on another Tribes Ancestral Homeland. The Los Coyotes are the lowest form of Indian as far as I am concerned.
To call out the tribe only is not responsible, these people are being exploited by their investors.
Mike Malik is becoming a master at Indian expoitation for personal financial gain.
Here in Michigan and elsewhere he uses Indian Tribes to get federal and state grants for roads, bridges, new business ventures and education. He is aided by his friends in Congress, people like Don Young, Jerry Lewis, Debbie Stabenow and Candice Miller.
He may uses the Ilitch celebrity, (and probably even some of their money to seed these schemes)to get a foot in the door with powerful people in Washington.
Your argument would be valid if the Los Coyotes did not know what they were doing, however this is not the case. The Los Coyotes knew the full details of what they were doing. They knew that they were infringing on another Tribes Ancestral Homeland and they along with Barwest and Barstow chose to ignore it based on their own greed. There really is no counter-argument to this, it is a matter of public record. All the parties involved knew what they were doing, and the Los Coyotes could of said we will not go against another Tribe or enter their territory without their consent. They not only chose to ignore the facts but they became party to its cover-up.
I understand splixx point. The woman of Los Coyotes knows better. She is the worst. She lets Barwest exploit her and her people. She exploits her own heritage every time she uses it in public knowing inside what the truth is.
She knows the truth and she knows what is right and wrong.
Mike Malik mislead the people of Barstow, Tom Shields made promises to many business people. Our hope of a casino is fading, the only people that benefited was the landowners near the proposed casinos, took the money and ran...
Barstow Resident
I too have felt that the Los Coyotes Tribe was a victim and being exploited by Tom Shields and Barwest. But their greed has gotten the best of them and now they are conspiring with Tom Shields to say that I some how tried to extort money out of them. Tom lied and said that I had demanded money from him or else I would go to work for the other side and attack them. Shane of Los Coyotes said that I was "for sale to the highest bidder" and tribal member Ms. Tina Johnson went as far as to say that I asked her "who cuts the checks for tribe as they need to give me some money". This orchestrated attack involved the Mayor and is their all out effort to silence me because I have been speaking out on Barwest corruption in Barstow. It is a shame to see Native Americans being corrupted by these developers! All of these lies were told at the August 6, 2007 Barstow City Council meeting. See for yourselves the lies they now tell.
Post a Comment