Feds Approve Controversial Scotts Valley Pomo, Coquille Tribal Casinos

The outgoing Biden administration approved land trust applications Friday for two controversial tribal casinos, one in the San Francisco Bay Area and another in southern Oregon.

The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians’ proposed $700 million casino would be built in Vallejo in Solano County on the Bay Area’s northern edge. Meanwhile, the Coquille Indian Tribe plans to build a gaming venue in the town of Medford, Ore.

Friday’s approvals will place the land earmarked for the casinos into federal trust so it can be used for gaming.

Bones of Contention

Both projects are controversial because they are opposed by the governors of California and Oregon, as well as by local tribes. Both the Scotts Valley Band and Coquille tribes claim ancestral ties to the land on which the casinos will be built, but these claims have been disputed by other tribes in the area.

Cache Creek Casino operator the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation has described the land in Vallejo as “Patwin ancestral territory,” adding that the “Scotts Valley proposal to appropriate Patwin lands” was one that “cannot withstand even minimal scrutiny.”

A group of tribes led by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians unsuccessfully sued the US Interior Department in an attempt to block the agency from approving the Coquille trust application.

Coquille tribal chair Brenda Meade has said the term is not only offensive, but it has also created “a reckless and baseless precedent for political attacks against hundreds of tribes like ours who have worked to legally rebuild our reservations while carefully following layers of laws and regulations.”

‘Anguish and Expense’

On Friday, Meade celebrated the decision while reflecting on the decade-long process, which had largely been hampered by opposition. The first Trump administration rejected the trust application in 2019, but it was resurrected by a federal judge who called that decision “arbitrary and capricious.”

“This decision finally offers a heartening sign to all tribal advocates who have pushed for the government to meet its responsibilities and trust obligations to tribes,” Meade said in a statement. “No tribe should go through the anguish and expense that the Coquille Tribe has endured.”

Scotts Valley tribal Chairman Shawn Davis echoed that sentiment. His tribe had been waiting since 2016 for a decision on the land.

This land represents not only our past but also our future. We are deeply grateful to the Department of the Interior for recognizing the importance of this land to the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians and for helping us realize this dream,” Davis said.

Cow Creek chair Carla Keene said of the Coquille decision in a statement Friday that her tribe would not “stand passively and allow this decision to stand uncontested.”