No Casino in Plymouth

OVERVIEW

No Casino in Plymouth:Working to Preserve Rural Amador County

Fee to Trust for Tribal Gaming - A Corrupt Process

No Casino In Plymouth (NCIP) is a grass roots citizens organization representing the people of Plymouth and other communities in Amador County who overwhelmingly oppose the Ione Band of Miwok's Fee to Trust (FTT) application for an Indian casino in Plymouth. The casino project proposed in Plymouth by the Ione Band is a classic example of what is wrong with FTT for "Indian gambling".

BACKGROUND

In April 2003 Plymouth became aware of the "modern" Ione Band's plans to build a large Las Vegas style casino in our small, rural town. While NCIP opposes the proposed casino, NCIP is committed to ensuring the laws and regulations for FTT for Indian gambling are followed and that justice is preserved. Unfortunately, our experience has been that there is not a similar commitment by the tribe, Department of Interior (DOI), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), or National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC). Expectations that laws and regulations related to FTT for Indian gambling would be followed, no longer exist due to the way the process has been administered by the DOI, BIA and NIGC. Based on our experiences, NCIP expects the DOI, BIA, and NIGC to generally not follow the law or the regulations for the FTT process for Indian gambling. NCIP's experience dealing with an arrogant, unethical, and uncooperative DOI, BIA, and NIGC for the past seven years has been extremely frustrating.

An out-of-state investor's unethical influence of local officials, secret meetings violating the California Brown Act, multiple scoping sessions, Administrative Procedures Act violations, improper procurement of EPA-GAP funds by the "landless" Ione Band using 40 acres near Ione, and the refusal of the Regional BIA to respond to FOIA requests were just the first of many unethical and perhaps illegal actions engaged in by the Ione Band, their investors, the DOI, BIA, EPA, and NIGC in order to approve and build a casino in Plymouth. With the assistance of a corrupted DOI, BIA, and NIGC, the unethical out of control "reservation shopping" by the Ione Band has become a seemingly never ending process and Plymouth is now commonly referred to as the "poster child" for what is wrong with FTT for Indian gambling.

After years of providing evidence to Congress, the DOI, BIA, NIGC, and Inspector General about the unethical and potentially illegal actions of the DOI, BIA, and NIGC, only Solicitor David Bernhardt acted to correct the false "landless" and "restored claims" made by the DOI, BIA, and NIGC for the Ione Band. In September 2006, future Secretary of Indian Affairs Carl Artman delivered a "restored" lands opinion for the "landless" Ione Band. NCIP immediately challenged the opinion because it was filled with false and misleading statements. NCIP continued to inform DOI, BIA, and NIGC officials about what was "wrong" with the Artman opinion without any result. In November 2008, NCIP sent a letter to then Secretary Kempthorne, with copy to then Solicitor David Bernhardt, detailing why the Artman opinion was "wrong" and requesting the opinion be withdrawn. On January 16, 2009 Solicitor Bernhardt withdrew and reversed the Artman opinion because it was "wrong". A DOI Official informed NCIP that the information provided by NCIP was responsible for the reversal and withdrawal of the restored lands opinion. The "wrong" restored lands opinion is just one example of how the BIA, DOI, and NIGC uses public documents without any basis in fact, history or truth to approve and build unwanted casinos in Plymouth and elsewhere.

Fee to Trust for Tribal Gaming - A Corrupted Process

The ongoing, costly, and unnecessary situation in Plymouth is the result of the BIA, DOI, and NIGC routinely and blatantly not following procedures established by federal law and regulation. The FTT for gambling process has been corrupted by the DOI, BIA, NIGC and the Ione Band in order to improperly and illegally advance and approve the tribe’s proposed fee to trust application for Indian gambling. DOI, BIA, and NIGC documents obtained by NCIP reveal a host of irregularities related to:

1) the questionable creation of the "modern" Ione Band by the Regional BIA Office.
2) the growth of tribal membership from ~70 members to more than 700.
3) the often Acting and recently appointed Regional Director's membership in the Ione Band.
4) the Ione Band's "landless" claims while receiving EPA GAP funds by using 40 acres near Ione.
5) the "restored" claims of the Ione Band, DOI and BIA declared "wrong" by the Solicitor.
6) the processing of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) without a "restored lands" opinion.
7) the processing of the FTT application by a FTT Consortium that the Inspector General reported as being a "conflict of interest" in 2006.

Since 2003, NCIP has provided detailed documentation to Congress, the DOI, the Inspector General, and BIA concerning these irregularities and many others as well as the failure of the DOI and BIA to follow the law. Except for the January 09 reversal and withdrawal of the Ione Band's restored lands opinion by Solicitor Bernhardt, arrogant indifference best describes the DOI, BIA, NIGC and EPA responses. However, the BIA and DOI continue to process the Tribe’s FTT application for "restored" lands without the required "restored" lands opinion. EPA processing of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) continues despite overwhelming evidence the Ione Band is not landless or restored as stated in the EIR. All evidence the modern Ione Band is a fraudulent creation of the BIA, is not landless and is not restored, has been ignored by the DOI, BIA, EPA and NIGC. The laws and regulations for FTT for gambling are administered by the DOI, BIA, and NIGC as if they are merely optional guidelines to be changed to meet the demands of tribes wanting to build casinos. The law is thusly subverted and corrupted.

SUMMARY

Based on our experiences, NCIP believes strongly that the administration of the laws and regulations governing FTT for Indian gambling by the DOI, BIA, and NIGC is seriously corrupted. NCIP is hopeful that the 112th Congress, while engaged in a serious debate concerning the limited role of government and the burgeoning federal deficit, will take time to consider the waste of taxpayer dollars and overstepping of authority by the DOI, BIA, and NIGC so readily apparent to those of us intimately and negatively affected by FTT for tribal gambling issues. NCIP can provide the Congress or its Committees many documented examples of the BIA, DOI, and NIGC's unethical and illegal actions related to the FTT for gambling application of the Ione Band of Miwok. Simply put, the FTT for gambling process as currently administered is corrupted. Improper and unethical practices appear to be standard operating procedure at the DOI, BIA, and NIGC.

NCIP respectfully requests an immediate comprehensive Congressional investigation into the unethical policies and corrupted, potentially illegal practices of the DOI, BIA, EPA, and NIGC to include personal testimony from NCIP and other citizen groups across the nation as this issue is not unique to Plymouth. NCIP is willing and eager to provide all or part of our investigative documentation to any members of Congress or Committees and to appear before any Committee willing to investigate and correct the flagrant abuses cited in this brief overview.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference." Bess Myerson