Here are the materials in the Soaring Eagle v. Teamsters case:
Saginaw Chippewa Labor Ordinance
gaming
Saginaw Chippewa Union Vote
From Indianz:
Union vote set for Saginaw Chippewa casino
The National Labor Relations Board will oversee a union election at the casino owned by the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan. The election takes place December 20. Teamsters Local 486 wants to organize about 300 housekeeping employees. This the second NLRB-overseen election at a tribal casino since the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the board’s ability to assert jurisdiction at tribal enterprises. Dealers at the casino owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation of Connecticut agreed to a union this past weekend.
Get the Story:
Union election date set for casino workers (The Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun 11/29)
Saginaw Chippewa’s Second Casino to Open Dec. 31
From the Bay City Times:
Experience in Manistee suggests Standish casino will grow fast, add jobs and a few problems
Sunday, November 18, 2007By Helen Lounsbury
STANDISH – Rumored for decades, Northeast Lower Michigan’s first casino stands just six weeks from its scheduled Dec. 31 opening.
Yet even as construction crews put finishing touches on what has finally become a certainty for rural Arenac County, little else here is certain. Questions and few answers, loom about how the casino will change this industry-poor, farmland-rich community. Here, in open pasture, the casino marks Arenac’s biggest development project in years.
”People hope it creates good jobs. People hope it makes us a destination. People hope it means more revenue for the area,” muses Curt Hillman, a Standish businessman who has spent a lifetime serving on local economic development boards.
Four Winds Casino Review in Chicago Tribune
From the Chicago Tribune:
New Buffalo casino brings a crowd to Harbor Country
Four Winds Casino and Resort has a half-dozen restaurants and a 165-room hotel. (Four Winds Casino and Resort photo / November 22, 2007)
|Tribune staff reporter
- November 25, 2007
-
NEW BUFFALO, Mich. – First thing’s first: Gambling can be dangerous.Casinos, on the other hand, are fascinating.Think about it: Top-notch restaurants, well-appointed hotel suites, luxurious spa services, live entertainment, boutique retail outlets, free-flowing alcohol and, of course, gaming galore — in most cases, at all hours. Minus the whole “experience nature” thing, casinos essentially provide all the major amenities of a luxury vacation under one neon-clad roof.They’re also not without their annoyances: that steady hum of ringing slot machines tuned to the pleasant key of C major, which can get stuck in your head for days; and, despite advanced air filtration systems, the lingering stench of smoke.But it’s all part of the experience. Staying at a casino — even just for a weekend (I wouldn’t recommend any longer) — means immersing yourself in a culture that may be foreign from your own. Which, when you think about it, is the whole point.So, where to go? The obvious destination for experiencing casino culture is Las Vegas.
And then there’s New Buffalo.
About 2 miles from downtown New Buffalo (population 2,200) lies the brand-new $180 million Four Winds Casino Resort, which opened its doors Aug. 2. The place is huge. It boasts 130,000 square feet of “gaming positions” (actual seats at slot machines or gaming tables) which, were it located in Las Vegas, would make it the second-largest casino on the Strip; plus a half-dozen restaurants and a modest 165-room hotel.
And, when I visited two weeks ago, all of its grandeur seemed absolutely necessary, due to the sheer volume of visitors. As I approached the long, winding drive leading to the casino nestled in the woods, I encountered something I’ve never before experienced in New Buffalo: traffic. People were lined up in their cars, waiting to park in one of the 2,120 spots in the heated, four-level parking garage and commence spending money. And after hanging out for a few days, it’s easy to see why: The place is beautiful — and, perhaps more importantly, resembles nothing of the gaudy glam of Vegas.
Designed by Urban Design Group (which counts Disney among its clients) and owned by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Four Winds has the look and feel of a regal North Woods lodge, situated far enough back from Interstate Highway 94 that the “woodland retreat” facade is believable.
Just inside the entrance, a grand rotunda (on which a local Pokagon artist will soon begin a mural project) is flanked by two ridiculously huge fireplaces; the beams lining the arcades (leading to shops and a bus terminal at one end, the hotel at the other) were carved from dead standing cedar and birch trees, which are often used in tribal ceremonies for the Pokagon band.
At the heart of it all is the gaming floor itself, which, despite the refreshing lack of neon, looks like a casino (darkly lit, maze-like carpet, banks and bars at every turn), but the restaurants tucked within could stand alone — even in Chicago.
Op-Ed Favoring Sault Tribe and Bay Mills Land Claims Settlement Acts
From the Port Huron Time Herald:
Democratic process is lost in decisions made at national level
Those required “Problems of Democracy” classes you took in high school are long on theory, but very short on reality.You saw it again a week ago. After several previous attempts, the Bay Mills Indian Community sought approval of a Michigan land settlement plan. The tribe would relinquish any claims to contested land at Charlotte Beach in exchange for the right to have property put into trust in the city of Port Huron.
HR 2176, the bill to approve the land-claim settlement between the state of Michigan and Bay Mills, was offered by U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, whose district includes the contested land. It was co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, whose district includes the property to be put in trust as part of the settlement. The arrangement has the support of former Michigan Gov. John Engler and Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Who was responsible for pressuring House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., into pulling the bill and thereby preventing it from being voted out of committee – let alone an up-or-down vote by the House and Senate? Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. The Senate majority leader pressured House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to pull the plug.What has our government become when a senator 2,000 miles away can reach down into the belly of a House subcommittee and kill a bill that would provide staggering benefits for Port Huron? After six years, Bay Mills has yet to be permitted a vote -even by a subcommittee of either branch of Congress. That’s absolutely astonishing to any American who still believes in the precepts of American democracy – “one man, one vote.”
In small-town America, the democratic system actually works pretty smoothly. If you’re a county commissioner, school board trustee or village or city council member, all you have to do is make a motion, get just one other person to second it, and you get your day in court – an up-or-down vote.
In Congress, however, the system has been corrupted beyond belief. It’s a system where power is granted to members not based on “one man, one vote,” but on an anti-democratic arrangement where certain members can block a bill, giving them power way beyond their single vote.
What has the corruption of the democratic process in Congress cost Port Huron? As a community facing an economic depression, one of the highest unemployment rates in America and a federally-funded Blue Water Bridge Plaza project that is on the brink of annihilating Port Huron, Congress is six years into blocking a $500 million casino development that would provide 3,000 to 6,000 union jobs with the spin-off developments.
Who’s benefiting from this obvious attempt to block competition for Detroit’s good old boys? Along with Reid’s Nevada crowd (including Detroit’s MGM Grand Casino, with its record $55 million earnings in October), is the newly-crowned “Most Dangerous City in the Nation” – Detroit.
Think the battle for the Port Huron casino is over? I think not!
Cliff Schrader is a radio columnist on WGRT-FM 102.3. His Friday columns are part of a cooperative agreement between the radio station and the Times Herald. His opinions are his own and not those of the Times Herald or WGRT.
Ilitch’s Involved in Indian Gaming Development (Speculation?)
From the Freep:
Pair betting on a huge payoff from casinos
Ilitch, Malik raise stakes in Indian gaming
November 25, 2007
BY TODD SPANGLER
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF
WASHINGTON — Marian Ilitch and Michael Malik are spending big money to navigate political hurdles for their plans for American Indian casinos on both coasts and in Michigan.
Ilitch is one of Michigan’s most powerful and wealthy women as owner of the MotorCity Casino and co-owner of the Detroit Red Wings with her husband, Mike, who also owns the Detroit Tigers. Malik is a big-time real estate developer, casino entrepreneur and, in at least a couple of ventures, Marian Ilitch’s partner.
Together, they have spent more than $1 million on lobbyists for their casino proposals and made more than $400,000 in political contributions during the last five years.
Money has gone to Northeastern Democrats, West Coast Republicans and many key races and causes in between. A few months after a fund-raiser for Sen. Carl Levin early this year, the Detroit Democrat agreed to support a casino project in Port Huron, despite opposition from some city officials and its congressional delegation.
So far, the investments have not led to approvals for the casino proposals, but the potential payoff is enormous.
“It could mean as much as $100- to $200 million a year for the Ilitches. … So it’s certainly worth their while,” said Roger Gros, publisher of Global Gaming Business, a trade magazine. Whatever they’re spending, he added, “is peanuts compared to what they could take in.”
Their bets are still long shots, having run into a stretch of bad luck. In California, where Ilitch and Malik are working with two tribes for a casino in Barstow, on the road from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, the legislature let a compact expire.
In New York, where they are working with the Shinnecock Indian Nation, a federal judge has ruled against the tribe’s land claim in Southampton.
Last week, a House committee abruptly delayed a hearing on the plan for an Indian casino in Port Huron. Unlike the other proposals, Malik and the Bay Mills tribe from the eastern Upper Peninsula are working without Ilitch. Though it has her tacit support, she can’t be directly involved because of her casino ownership in Detroit.
Tom Shields, a spokesman for Ilitch and Malik, said the proposals all are in play.
“You can’t get into this thing unless you’re going to be in it for the long haul,” Shields said. “If you are successful, obviously, the investment pays off.”
Preliminary Results of Union Vote at Foxwoods
From The New London Day:
FOXWOODS DEALERS OK UNION
Casino Vows To Challenge 1,289-852 Vote
Mashantucket — Dealers voted in the United Auto Workers union at Foxwoods Resort Casino Saturday by a vote of 1,289 to 852, but the fight — tense for some, enthralling for others — isn’t over yet.
In a historic election expected to bring in organized labor for the first time at one of the world’s largest Indian-owned casinos, dealers cast a total of 2,177 ballots, but 36 were challenged by the union or the company and thrown out. The overall vote was 60 percent in favor of the UAW. The count overseen by the National Labor Relations Board was completed at about 2 a.m. this morning. A total of 2,640 dealers were initially eligible, said Foxwoods Spokesman Saverio Mancini, but 25 were disqualified before voting and another five ballots were filled out wrong and voided, and some just didn’t show up, he said. Despite the win by the UAW, Foxwoods President John O’Brien said this morning that the company and its owners, the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, would examine all their options, including a legal fight, before letting the UAW in the door.
“We are disappointed with the preliminary tally, however, these results will not be official until all legal issues, including jurisdiction, are resolved,” O’Brien in a statement. “We continue to believe as we have from the very beginning that the labor board lacked jurisdiction and that any election should have been governed by tribal laws. “We have made our position clear to the NLRB and will continue to do so in the future.”
IGRA Restored Lands/Restored Tribes Exception — Oklahoma Shawnee
From NewsOK.com:
Zoning, land trust could cloud Shawnee casino plan
Landless the Shawnee Tribe is, and landless it will remain for some time. The tribe faces legal obstacles in its aim to develop land along Interstate 35 as a hotel-casino attraction and tribal headquarters.
Gardner-Tanenbaum Group sold the 104 acres on the west side of I-35 between Britton Road and Wilshire Boulevard to investors who are working with the tribe to get it put into trust, a requirement before the tribe can develop it.
The land is zoned for industrial use, not entertainment or retail. Gardner-Tanenbaum marketed it for several years as a prime Interstate site for warehouses or distribution centers.
Getting the zoning changed shouldn’t be too hard since the tribe has been working with city planners as it looked for land in Oklahoma City, said Greg Pitcher, head of the tribe’s economic development arm.
“In talking to the city and choosing a site, we took all that into consideration,” Pitcher said, in an effort to locate a site that specifically would not be at cross purposes with the city’s goals. “We assume the city would not oppose” a zoning change request, he said.
City planning director John Dugan said Wednesday that his staff had had no discussions with tribal officials — that they knew of. He said city planning staff deal with many planning and zoning inquiries daily.
Dugan said that if the land is put in a trust, it might supersede local zoning. In that case, Pitcher said the tribe still would work closely with the city.
“Our interest in the beginning has been to sign an intergovernmental agreement that would exceed their guidelines,” Pitcher said. “We’re going to exceed any requirement the city has, in doing this.”
Pitcher said he could not outline the argument the Shawnee Tribe will make to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in seeking that the land be put in trust — because it’s confidential.
But, he said, the tribe only appears to be caught by conflicting law.
The federal law that restored the tribe by severing it from the Cherokee Nation in 2000 forbids it from developing land in any other tribes’ jurisdiction, he said. That made Oklahoma City attractive, since the city is within no tribe’s jurisdiction.
BIA rules generally state that to have land put in trust, a tribe must have a historical tie to it, and the Shawnee Tribe appears to have no historical tie to the land on I-35.
But Pitcher said the issues are much more complex than that, partly because the Shawnee Tribe, while restored, is landless, and partly because federal laws in Oklahoma surrounding Indian tribes, trust land and what they can do with it are different from every other part of the country.
US v. Littlejohn — Garnishment of Tribal Per Cap
This is how the United States goes after the tribal per capita payments of convicted criminals. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians argued they were immune from the order of garnishment, but there is no sovereign immunity from suit by the United States.
Convict’s Response to Notice of Garnishment
Shinnecock Case Materials
Here is a link to the opinion. Gaming Court Decision (October 31, 2007):
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Here is the tribe’s Shinnecock Trial Brief
and here is the tribe’s proposed findings of fact: Shinnecock Proposed Findings of Fact
Turtle Talk 
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