Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Allegations that Mayor Dale's letter contributed to Interior's rejection of casino proposals


In a post at the Desert Dispatch, allegations have been made suggesting that an unauthorized letter Barstow's Mayor Lawrence Dale sent to an Interior Department official blasting the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe was one of the contributing factors that resulted in rejection letters sent last week by an official at the Department of Interior to three tribes who had sought to take land in trust in Barstow for the purposes of developing casino resorts.

Dale wrote a letter on Aug. 20 to Clay Gregory, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Sacramento office, accusing the tribe of providing "misinformation" to the bureau and "continued meddling in the City’s affairs." Dale wrote his letter in response to an Aug. 8 letter the Chemehuevi tribe submitted to the federal government regarding the proposal of the Los Coyotes/Big Lagoon tribes to build a casino in Barstow. In that letter, the Chemehuevi accused the two other tribes of lacking ancestral ties to the area and of "reservation shopping."

Gaming Compacts held by two of the tribes backed by Mayor Dale were rejected by the California legislature last Fall and have since expired. With this latest rejection, it seems relatively certain that Mayor Lawrence Dale has failed in his 7-year bid to bring casino gambling to Barstow -- this scheme has been the cornerstone of Dale's plan for Barstow's economic recovery.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't it be just as easy to say that the letter from the Chemehuevi killed the chances. Either way it don't matter, the deals are all done and over with. Its back to square one for everyone.

Verifiable said...

According to copies of letters sent to TVT, various press reports and the public record in Barstow; the Chemehuevi Tribal chairman was encouraged by the consultant that BarWest was paying to handle the EIS to write the letter the Chairman sent to the BIA official on behalf of the Chemehuevi Tribe.

You see, Mayor Lawrence Dale and Ron Rector have intentionally ignored requirements in SB 18 (2004) that require consultation on land use projects with select tribes -- specifically those tribes identified by the Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC), that are known to have ancestral claims in the greater Barstow area.

When the EIS got underway, the City sent the BarWest paid consultant a list of tribes that were to be consulted and it was not the same list that the Native American Heritage Commission publishes although it was represented to the consultant as such. In fact the city's tampered list excluded the Chemehuevi and San Manuel (Serrano) tribes among others.

This selective exclusion and violation of SB 18 has been in play on various other land use decisions in Barstow since March 2005; not just the casino scheme.

Under Mayor Dale's leadership, Barstow has shown distain for the interests of any Indian tribe not under contract to BarWest.

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