9.05.07Tribes launch TV campaign for Barstow casinos
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer San Bernardino County Sun
Two California Indian tribes launched an 11th-hour media campaign Wednesday with a televised ad they hope will prompt state Legislators to ratify their gaming compacts so they could build casinos in Barstow.
Big Lagoon Rancheria of Humboldt County and the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians in San Diego County negotiated gaming compacts with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in September 2005, but the compacts have remained in limbo ever since.
No hearings on the compacts have been scheduled in Sacramento.
"My family was used as the face of Indian poverty in the campaign to pass Proposition 5," said Los Coyotes tribal member Francine Kupsch, referring to a 1998 televised ad that featured her and her children sitting in their trailer on the reservation, reading a book by oil lamp light. "But a decade later, the wealthy tribes are using their gambling dollars to keep poor tribes like Los Coyotes from having the same opportunity to succeed."
With only a week to go before the 2007 Legislative session ends, the clock is ticking.
Both tribes are hoping a public rallying cry will draw attention to their cause.
If not, the tribes are likely to go their separate ways, with Big Lagoon considering a casino or hotel somewhere on their 20-acre reservation off the Pacific Coast and Los Coyotes continuing its push for a Barstow casino.
Both tribes want to open a joint casino - the Barstow Casinos and Resort - that could pull an estimated 60 million cars traveling to and from Las Vegas to the casino, a venture that could mean millions of dollars in new revenue to Barstow and about 1,700 full-time jobs.
An ad posted on YouTube on Wednesday and expected to run on cable television in the next several days in Sacramento, the Bay Area and in Los Angeles shows a snippet of the 1998 televised ad featuring Kupsch and the message for California voters to "Stand up to the greedy tribes" and to "Call your legislative leaders" to support the tribal fairness bill.
Some gaming tribes including the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians are fighting the move by Big Lagoon and Los Coyotes to build casinos in Barstow, calling it an encroachment on Serrano ancestral lands.
But Los Coyotes and Big Lagoon believe San Manuel and other gaming tribes are more concerned about competition.
San Manuel spokesman Jacob Coin said that while he had not yet seen the YouTube ad or was aware of the news conference the tribes held at the state Capitol, San Manuel's position was still status quo.
Moving so they can have a better market location is just not what we promised the voters would happen," Coin said, referring to Big Lagoon Rancheria, whose reservation lies more than 700 miles northwest of Barstow.
San Manuel also hit a roadblock getting its amended compact ratified this year when the tribe refused to sign a side agreement that would make the compact more palatable to some Assemblymembers.
The compact would allow the tribe to add 7,500 more slot machines to its casino near Highland and would generate $45 million a year in state revenue to start.
Big Lagoon spokesman Jason Barnett said the lack of progress Big Lagoon and Los Coyotes have made in Sacramento in the last two years is an "unfortunate commentary on how much power the big tribes have in Sacramento."
"We've been locked out of the game for months. We can't even get an informational hearing, let alone an up or down vote," Barnett said.
Contact staff writer Joe Nelson at (909) 386-3874 or via e-mail at joe.nelson@sbsun.com
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