Great nations should keep their word

A generation ago, the United States destroyed nearly 10,000 acres of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s reservation land in Maricopa County near Phoenix.   In a 1986 federal settlement statute described by the Department of the Interior as “akin to a treaty”, Congress promised to remedy this injustice.  Congress promised that the Nation would have the right to acquire new land in Maricopa County to replace its destroyed land, and promised that the replacement land would be “treated as a federal reservation for all purposes.”  Our replacement land was to be gaming-eligible — as was our ruined land. 

The Nation now has replacement reservation land located in the same county (Maricopa) as our destroyed reservation.  As the Department of the Interior and the federal courts have repeatedly confirmed, this land meets all of the requirements that Congress set out in the 1986 federal settlement statute, including the statute’s strict geographic limitations.  And for the record, our replacement is 48 — not 100 — miles from our destroyed reservation land.  Our opponents use of the “100 mile” argument is not only legally false, it is factually incorrect and intentionally misleading.

{mosads}In what is now18 straight wins, the federal agencies and the courts also have explicitly confirmed that the Nation has not violated its tribal-state gaming compact, as authorized by voter-approved Proposition 202.   So now the proponents of H.R. 308 insist that there was some side-deal by which the Tohono O’odham Nation promised never to conduct gaming in the greater Phoenix area.  What the proponents of H.R. 308 are not telling you is that they, we, and all of Arizona tribes explicitly agreed in our compacts that there are no side deals or side promises. Each of our compacts includes a provision that says, “This Compact contains the entire agreement of the parties with respect to the matters covered by this Compact and no other statement, agreement, or promise made by any party, officer or agent of any party shall be valid or binding.”  This is why a federal court found that “the parties specifically agree[d] that understandings not written in the Compact have no force.”  The fact is, there simply was no such promise to never game in Phoenix area.

In compliance with the clear letter of the law and numerous court rulings, the Nation has nearly completed work the first phase of its resort and casino development on its reservation land, and we are on track to open on December 20.  1,800 men and women today are hard at work putting the finishing touches on this resort.  Once fully built out, our project will generate hundreds of millions of dollars of economic opportunity for the surrounding communities from this project.

The tribes behind H.R. 308 have already spent millions of dollars in a failed bid to protect their Phoenix area monopoly through frivolous lawsuits aimed at halting the Nation’s project.  Not surprisingly, a federal court thoroughly rejected these claims, calling them “entirely unreasonable.”  Undeterred by these federal court losses, the leader of one of the wealthy tribes trotted out these same discredited claims just last week in an editorial. 

Having lost in court, the Salt River Indian Community and the Gila River Indian Community have spent $17 million lobbying Congress to pass H.R. 308, the dishonorably-titled “Keep the Promise Act.”  With this legislation, the proponents of H.R. 308 ask Congress to unilaterally amend a tribal-state gaming compact which was negotiated in good faith and at arms-length between the state and the Tohono O’odham Nation. 

If passed, H.R. 308 will not only renege on the United States’ promises to the Tohono O’odham Nation, it will hand pink slips to the 1,800 men and women working on site and, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, will cost the American taxpayers as much as $1 billion in liability.  1,800 jobs lost and $1 billion taxpayer liability is a very high price to pay for the creation of a no-competition zone to protect two wealthy tribes.

Enough is enough.  The late Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black once said, “great nations, like great men, should keep their word.”   The Tohono O’odham Nation urges Congress keep its word to the Nation and reject this deeply dishonorable legislation.

Manuel is the chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation of Arizona.