Juaneno Band of Orange County – 25 Year Wait Almost Over?

The Juaneno Band of Orange County, who has been petitioning the Bureau of Indian Affairs for 25 years for federal recognition, may finally get a decision this year. A tentative decision has been postponed three times in the past year but last week, the bureau asked for an additional 60 days and is promising to release its ruling by Nov. 26.

Along with recognition comes the right to acquire a reservation and build a casino which will have a dramatic effect on the balance of economic power in Southern California. The major casinos in northern San Diego as well as those in Riverside and San Bernardino counties depend on Orange and Los Angeles counties for a large share of their customers. A new casino in Orange County would most certainly divert these customers away.

“A well-positioned tribal casino in Orange County could do a phenomenal amount of business,” said Bill Eadington, an economics professor and gambling specialist from the University of Nevada, Reno.

It could “cut off the lifeline to many of the tribes in northern San Diego County,” said Doug Elmets, a spokesman for the Pala Band of Mission Indians, whose casino is one of the state's largest.

But Elmets and others aren't particularly concerned about an economic threat they consider a long-shot. Even if the tribe gets bureau approval, any casino project would still face many daunting obstacles.

“Just look at the number of tribes that have been federally recognized in recent memory,” Elmets said. “There aren't many.

“Then the process of getting land taken into trust (as a new reservation), getting a compact, having it ratified. . . . That would take years,” Elmets said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs' track record suggests that the Juaneno band faces discouraging odds in its bid to join the nation's 561 federally recognized tribes. Since the Secretary of Interior established strict acknowledgment criteria in 1978, just 16 of 40 tribes that have gone through the process have been granted recognition.

The process, which can take decades, also appears to have become more contentious and political as Indian gambling has exploded into a $25 billion industry, with $7.6 billion of that in California.

In the past five years, two Connecticut tribes – the Eastern Pequots and the Schaghticokes – have had the bureau tentatively grant recognition, only to deny it later in the face of state and local opposition.

California has 107 federally recognized tribes, nearly a fifth of the nation's total. More than 60 other Indian groups in the state, including three in San Diego County, are seeking federal recognition. None is as far along as the Juaneno, which split into at least three factions while its petition was pending.

The Juanenos have occupied parts of Orange, San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties for thousands of years, tribal leaders say. Their ancestral home was in and around San Juan Capistrano, although they lost all their land in 1851, according to one Juaneno Web site.

Tribal leaders and their representatives declined to respond to requests for interviews, but have said in the past that the tribe is seeking formal federal status to preserve its culture and heritage.

But talk of a casino has always seemed to be part of the mix. One faction signed an agreement to build a casino with outside financial backers in 1995.

With a federal decision nearing, another contract purportedly linked to a future casino has surfaced, and powerful Washington lobbyists have been enlisted by two of the competing factions.

“It's clear that the purpose for the formation of this tribe is to have a casino in the middle of urban Orange County,” said Rep. John Campbell, R-Irvine, whose congressional district stretches from Dana Point to Newport Beach.

“The people of Orange County don't want that, and neither do I,” Campbell said. “If someone wants to create a tribe to preserve their cultural heritage, that's great. But they don't need a casino to do that.”

Campbell is preparing legislation that would impose a 25-year embargo on gaming for newly recognized tribes.

The revenue potential of an Indian casino in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which includes Orange County, is almost incalculable. With nearly 13 million people, the region is second only to the 18.8 million people who live in the New York metropolitan area.

Like Orange County, Los Angeles County also has no federally recognized tribes. The closest Indian casino is 65 miles east on the San Manuel reservation in suburban San Bernardino.
With that enviable location, San Manuel's 180 members operate one of the nation's most profitable casinos, with 2,000 slot machines. A new compact will allow the tribe to add up to 5,500 more slots next year.

Jacob Coin, San Manuel's communications director, said the tribe would not interfere with the Juanenos' bid for recognition. “It's a fairness issue with regard to recognition,” Coin said. “Every tribe has a right to have a decision made on their application, and in this case, where it has taken that long, they have a right to know. If they pass muster, we'll congratulate them.”

Eadington, a national authority on gambling markets, said there's still untapped demand that could soften the impact an Orange County casino might have on outlying competitors.
A proposed casino there would almost certainly touch off a political firestorm such as the one that engulfed and ultimately killed a proposed 5,000-slot casino in San Pablo, a freeway-close suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area.

While states must negotiate gambling agreements with tribes, they don't necessarily have to approve mega-casinos in urban settings, Eadington said.

“There is an interesting public policy issue here,” Eadington said. Federal law says “tribes have the right to negotiate as equal partners against the state, but the state also has an interest in protecting the public interest.”

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