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| Tuesday, June 20, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Tribe may consider Michigan casino
Associated Press
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.-- Building a casino in this west Michigan area is an issue that the tribal chairman of the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians knows he will have to address, he said.
However, Ron Yob said a casino would not be the main reason to petition in November for federal tribal status from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
"It's never been brought up at our council meetings and that's by design," he said. "We're most concerned about social welfare."
In a letter to a congressman, Yob outlined the tribe's wishes to provide services in health care, elder care, education and housing for its members. Many tribal members, he said, enroll in other area tribes that are federally recognized to qualify for BIA education programs.
Petitioning for the status is all a tribe needs to do under the 1988 National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to be approved for a casino in Michigan.
If that is the case, Grand Rapids-area residents who now travel to Mount Pleasant's Soaring Eagle, the Little River Casino in Manistee or Blue Chip Casino in northern Indiana soon may be gaming in their own back yards.
Casinos and gaming are big business in Michigan for American Indians.
Video and slot machines at Indian casinos last year netted more than $500 million. Nationwide, 309 tribal casinos run by 195 tribes in 28 states generate $8.26 billion in annual revenues, according to the National Indian Gaming Commission, which oversees Indian gaming.
Yob and the council have been contacted by high-rolling casino management companies from New York, New Jersey, Louisiana, Florida, South Dakota and Michigan, he said.
In exchange for a few million dollars to help the tribe get its casino running, the companies want the tribe to sign a deal that allows them to run the gaming for a percentage of the revenue.
So far, the tribe isn't buying.
"They're basically dangling these giant carrots in front of us," Yob told The Grand Rapids Press. "One thing I can honestly say is we haven't taken a penny from anybody. We don't want them dictating to us what we have to do."
Besides, he added, until the tribe gets federal recognition, it doesn't have the official status to consider a casino.
As companies line up to get a piece of the action, so are casino opponents.
"There would absolutely be an active campaign against one if it were put here, and I would certainly be part of that opposition," said Rex Rogers, president of Cornerstone University, a Christian school in Grand Rapids.
His main argument is that gambling chips away at the nation's work ethic, the idea that hard work and persistence pays off.
What opponents are missing, however, is the economic impact, Yob said. Casino revenue would go toward education for Indian children, housing for tribal elders and young families, medical care, food and even clothing.
"Three to four years ago, I would have been against gambling," Yob said. "Now, I'm not. I've seen the impact it's had on Native Americans. Now, families have cars. Now, their kids have clothing on par with the other students."
For the tribe, either way: "It's going to be hot," Yob said.
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