Bay Mills Indian Community
Abramoff-Style Media Assault on Port Huron/Flint/Romulus Deal
From the Port Huron Times Herald:
Casino foes launch blitzes in Detroit, D.C.
A media blitz aimed at rallying opposition to proposed casinos in Port Huron and Romulus is being orchestrated by a public-relations consultant who has worked for some of the biggest names in Democratic politics.
Peter Ragone III confirmed he is president of the newly created Americans for Gaming Reform Inc., which has launched a radio campaign in Detroit and bought a full-page ad Tuesday in Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill.
News Coverage of House Hearing on Port Huron/Romulus Indian Land Claims Settlement: “Scam”?
From the Detroit Free Press:
During his testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee, Kilpatrick seemed at ease, defending his city from incursions he said no one should doubt would hurt Detroit’s three casinos.
“We’re pitting Port Huron against Romulus against Detroit,” he told the committee, with his mother, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, looking on.
House Resources Committee Meeting re: BMIC and Sault Tribe Land Claims Settlement Bills — Feb. 6
The House Natural Resources Committee, led by Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:
- H.R. 2176 (Stupak): To provide for and approve the settlement of certain land claims of the Bay Mills Indian Community.
- H.R. 4115 (Dingell): To provide for and approve the settlement of certain land claims of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
Granholm Cuts New Deal on Port Huron Casino
I read this just after I assign my students a project to assess the Port Huron deal….
From the Port Huron Times Herald:
Gambling on Port Huron
Granholm’s support improves the odds for a riverfront casino
The long-stalled effort to open an Indian-owned casino in Port Huron has received a major boost from Michigan’s governor, who has thrown her support behind the project.
Tribal Walleye Stocking Program
From Soo Today:
Friday, December 21, 2007
NEWS RELEASE
SAULT STE. MARIE
TRIBE OF
CHIPPEWA INDIANS
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Tribal walleye stocking program going strong into 10th year
21 percent of walleye sampled were stocked fish; no sign of VHS in stocks
SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – Tom Gorenflo, Inter-Tribal Fisheries and Assessment Program (ITFAP) director, reported walleye fishing in the St. Marys river received another boost in 2007 as the ITFAP raised and stocked 337,000 two-inch walleye summer fingerlings at various locations in the river.
Inland Agreement Photos
From Indian Country Today:
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Photos by Theresa Keshick — Pictured are the signatories of the commemorative signing of the 2007 Inland Consent Decree between five tribes – Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Bay Mills Indian Community, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians – and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. government Oct. 25. More than 100 people were present to witness the signing. (Below) Some of the signatories included Alice King Yellowbank, member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands Tribal Council; Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians Chairman Frank Ettawageshik; and Albert Colby Jr., tribal administrator of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.
Indian Country Faces and Places welcomes your submissions. Send your high resolution photographs and a short description to photo@indiancounty.com and place ”Faces and Places” in the subject line.
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.”
Rep. Miller: Dems & Detroit Killed Sault Tribe and BMIC Bills
From the Port Huron Times Herald:
Your recent editorial about efforts to bring a casino to Port Huron shows the Times Herald is, at best, completely naive as to the politics behind this issue in Washington, D.C.
It is almost laughable that you are urging me to stand up to the bullying of my fellow Republicans to get this legislation passed. It is true some Republican members of Congress are opposed to any gaming expansion; however, as you may be aware, the Democrats control both the U.S. House and the Senate, every committee chairmanship and what legislation is heard in committee and on the floor.
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Our bills were scheduled to be approved by the Natural Resources Committee. We were certain we had the necessary votes for passage, which is why it appears that Senate Majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada called Speaker Nancy Pelosi and asked her to pull the bill. We are aware that Las Vegas Casino interests and other tribes that fear competition were heavily lobbying against our bills, as were Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his mother Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick and Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, members of Congress representing Detroit.
Turtle Talk 
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