Bill to Expand Tribe’s Land Dies in U.S. Senate

A bill that would have expanded the reservation of the impoverished Torres-Martinez tribe into the upper reaches of the Coachella Valley died Thursday when the U.S. Senate adjourned without taking action.

The bill’s death also dashed the tribe’s hopes of building a casino away from the existing reservation along the shores of the Salton Sea.

The legislation would have endorsed a government settlement awarding the tribe $14 million with which to buy up to 11,800 acres northwest of its reservation.

That new reservation land would replace trust land that was flooded--and became the Salton Sea--after the turn of the century.

But because of opposition to the bill from both Nevada senators, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was unable to bypass normal committee hearings and take it directly to a floor vote before the Senate adjourned Thursday.

“We’re frustrated, but optimistic that [the land settlement] will still be resolved in the next Congress,” said Mary Bellardo, Torres-Martinez tribal chair. “We’re a patient people.”

The sticking point was the Torres-Martinez tribe’s request to build a casino on new reservation land. A handful of senators initially opposed the bill after lobbying efforts by a neighboring Indian tribe and the Marriott resort hotel chain, which both opposed Torres-Martinez gambling plans.

At the end, two senators--Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, both Democrats from Nevada--still opposed the bill, but for somewhat different reasons.

Reid spokeswoman Jenny Backus said her boss did not realize until recently that the bill included provisions for an Indian casino--and that was an issue he wanted debated at committee hearings.

“The casino was not advertised as part of the bill, and Indian gaming has ramifications we need to talk about,” Backus said. “He’s not trying to be an obstructionist, but he doesn’t want people trying to slip through things like this at the midnight hour.”

A spokesman for Bryan said he was concerned that a casino on noncontiguous, newly acquired reservation land would set precedent.

In fact, the federal law allows Indian tribes to acquire land--with the approval of the host state and the Interior Department--for gambling or other uses but usually such land adjoins the existing reservation. Officials worry about tribes wanting distant parcels--alongside freeways or in populated areas--to develop marketable sites for gambling and other enterprises.

A Wisconsin tribe won approval to buy new reservation land in downtown Milwaukee--and opened a gambling hall.

Both Feinstein and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) pressed their Nevada counterparts to approve the bill, especially after the affected parties in California had agreed to a compromise settlement that removed local opposition to it.

“There’s some other reason they’re opposed to the bill--we don’t know what--but the sad part is, they’re holding this poor tribe hostage,” said an Interior Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Tribal chairwoman Bellardo said she hoped Congress would reconsider the settlement in January--with amendments that, she said, should appease opponents.

Bellardo said the tribe was willing to restrict a casino to an area closest to the existing reservation and would only seek reservation land farther up the valley--in areas of greater economic vitality--for non-gambling economic development.

“It seems that as soon as people heard the word ‘casino,’ they went wild,” Bellardo said. “So we’ll eliminate that problem and hopefully everybody will be happy. There are other options for us. What about a golf course?”

The initial settlement proposal--which won quick support in the House--would have allowed the tribe to buy 640 acres near or in such posh resort communities as La Quinta, Indian Wells, Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage, as long as the cities did not object.

But that proposal--endorsed by both the Interior and Justice departments--faced stringent opposition from the Cabazon Indians, who operate a successful casino along Interstate 10 in nearby Indio, and from Marriott International, which has three resort hotels in the area.

A Cabazon official said the tribe was opposed to the Torres-Martinez tribe being allowed to buy land in “leap frog” fashion away from its original reservation, and that Cabazon was concerned about unfair competition to its own casino.

The Torres-Martinez tribe was invited by the Cabazon group to develop a casino near the Cabazon casino--but Bellardo said she wanted nothing to do with that.

A Marriott official said the resort hotel chain distances itself from gambling venues because gambling detracts from family business.

The Torres-Martinez tribe agreed to a compromise settlement--proposed by the Cabazons and Marriott--that restricted its 640-acre purchase to an area southeast of a line roughly between Indio and La Quinta. That area is more desolate and distant from Marriott’s hotels and I-10, where a casino site would have more directly competed with the Cabazon casino.

Still, Nevada’s two senators opposed that compromise settlement.

As late as Thursday, an 11th-hour compromise by the tribe--promising to build a casino only on land immediately adjacent to existing reservation property--was rejected by both Nevada senators.

The Torres-Martinez tribe was awarded 25,000 acres of reservation land in 1909--four years after a Colorado River canal burst, flooding a desert sump that included half the reservation. The water was expected to evaporate, but didn’t, and became the Salton Sea.

The bill before Congress was designed to offer redress to the tribe by blessing a settlement in which the federal government would award the tribe $10 million, and two local irrigation districts would kick in $4 million, for damages to the tribe so it could buy replacement land.