Tribe Hitches Up, Heads North
The long-running debate over plans for side-by-side Indian casinos in Barstow gets a new dose of PR later today at the state Capitol.
Last month, we reported on the status of the tribal casinos proposed by San Diego's Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians and Humboldt's Big Lagoon Rancheria. The two tribes signed gaming agreements with Governor Schwarzenegger in 2005, but those agreements have sat in limbo in the Legislature ever since. Some say it's because the agreements, which would allow each tribe to open its own casino in Barstow, sets a bad precedent for off reservation tribal gaming. Others claim that powerful gaming tribes have had a hand in blocking the efforts of what could be two new competitors.
In a story that aired on The California Report in May, we introduced you to Francine Kupsch, a Los Coyotes tribe member whose meager life inside a tiny camping trailer was portrayed in one of the original political ads in support of 1998's Proposition 5 tribal gaming initiative.
This morning, Kupsch and her dilapidated old trailer are scheduled to pull up to the grounds of the state Capitol.
Kupsch no longer lives in the trailer; it's been sitting next door to her current home for a few years. But as we found when visiting Los Coyotes' rural San Diego County reservation, her current home is badly in need of repair. And the tribe hopes to make a simple point with today's event: there's still a lot of economic hardship on many California reservations.
This is actually Los Coyotes' second round of PR campaigns on the grounds of the statehouse; last year, several tribe members staged a short hunger strike in hopes of getting the casino compact ratified.
You might also remember that Los Coytoes' partner tribe, Big Lagoon, agreed last month to allow the negotiations to keep going in Sacramento-- rather than return to court in their quest for a tribal casino.
http://www.kqed.org/weblog/capitalnotes/2007/06/tribe-hitches-up-heads-north.jsp
No comments:
Post a Comment