It goes without saying that Native Americans got a raw deal from Europeans on this continent. That said, it doesn’t justify blackmail.
The Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks project could be stalled by Indian land claims filed by an organization seeking to build a tribal casino near Denver International Airport.
Steve Hillard, who founded Native American Lands Group to pursue the casino plans, said the organization is “now involved in due diligence for filing land claims on several major public projects and FasTracks is one of them.”
The claims could stall the proposed $4.7 billion rail and bus project for months or years. Hillard declined to provide any specifics on the claims themselves.
Hillard was involved in similar claims regarding the Alaska Pipeline, which did similar schedule holding-up, and was eventually settle for Much Land and Lots of Cash.
Hillard already has filed a formal tribal land claim with the Interior Department, which oversees American Indian issues, on 27 million acres in Colorado that were the Cheyenne and Arapaho homelands.
The Native American Lands Group offered to settle the claims if Colorado allowed a casino and cultural center on 500 acres the project’s investors would buy. Gov. Bill Owens has opposed the project, so Hillard’s attorneys are preparing to file claims on land that state and federal transportation agencies planned to buy for FasTracks and other projects.
“We give the governor credit for consistency in his opposition, but we are going to proceed with asserting the tribes’ rights,” said Hillard.
Unless, of course, he’s willing to cut a better deal.
I admire attempts by Tribes to better themselves, and casinos certainly aren’t the worst way of doing that. Nonetheless, filing spurious claims in order to pressure the governor to allow casino gambling on one site would be dirty pool from anyone doing it.