Friday, October 31, 2008

Milwaukee Newspaper: Department of Interior Should Judge Kenosha Project on Merits and Law

Excellent editorial in this morning’s Milwaukee Business Journal.
Casino should get fair hearing

The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin took a very unusual step last week when it went after the very agency that will decide if it will be able to develop an $808 million casino and entertainment complex in Kenosha.

But the tribe does deserve a fair hearing into whether it should be able to open the casino at the site of the Dairyland Greyhound Park. The site must be put into federal trust, a requirement for the development of an Indian gaming facility.

Tribal chair Lisa Waukau wrote a letter to George Skibine, acting assistant secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, saying that U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne will respond to political pressure to issue a “hasty, arbitrary and capricious end-of-term disapproval of our long-pending application.”

The tribe now wants that decision to be delayed until the next administration takes office.

In the past, Kempthorne has made clear his opposition to off-reservation Indian gaming and his department already has rejected 11 applications to allow such projects and ceased review of another dozen.

The Menominee tribe said a rejection by the current administration would be based solely on Kempthorne’s personal opposition to off-reservation gaming “rather than any legal basis for denial.”

That is not right. The casino proposal should be judged on its own merits and applicable federal law.

Hear, hear.

Show your support for the Kenosha project and casino competition by signing the online petition.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Respected Professor Calls for U.S. to Approve Kenosha Casino

As the Menominee Tribe asks the federal government to suspend review of the Tribe’s Kenosha casino application until a new administration takes office, today’s Small Business Times “Milwaukee Biz Blog” features a thought-provoking piece by Professor Dennis Dresang, director of the Center for Wisconsin, State, Local and Tribal Governance for the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison.


Dresang is one of the authors of a new study that points to the U.S. government’s termination of the Menominee Tribe’s federal recognition from 1954 to 1973 as the root cause of the economic and social ravages the Tribe continues to face today.


You can read the article here.


Call on the government to do the right thing – sign the online petition for casino competition in Southeast Wisconsin.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Menominee Ask Federal Government to Leave Kenosha Decision to New Administration

See the letter from Menominee Tribal leadership below. You know, it’s amazing that with the U.S. economy in such a downturn, the politicians apparently still can’t do the right thing and approve a project that will create 3,000 good jobs and launch a $1 billion construction project in a region that has experienced major job and business losses.


On the positive side, it’s clear from the letter – as well as the Tribe’s media statement and its letter to the BIA – that Menominee isn’t going to give up the fight.

Dear Supporters and Friends:

As the Bush Administration enters its final days, we have been informed that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is looking to reject our long-pending Kenosha casino application. While Secretary Kempthorne's personal opposition to off-reservation gaming is well-known, such a denial would go against the strong recommendation of Bureau of Indian Affairs' professional staff, who have studied the Menominee application in detail and say it should be approved. It would go against the wishes of the Kenosha community, which has twice voted in favor of the casino. And it would go against all of the laws and regulations governing land-into-trust decisions in our country.


To try to stop a capricious, end-of-term rejection - and to ensure our project is judged on its significant legal merits, not anyone's personal politics - our Tribe has asked the Department to temporarily suspend consideration of our application until a fresh presidential Administration takes over in January. We are committed to seeing the Kenosha project through. We believe a new Administration offers the best chance to stop one individual's personal beliefs from unfairly overriding the Bureau officials who recommend approval based on the law and a thorough review of our submission.


We hope the Department grants our request for a temporary suspension, but we are nonetheless prepared for other outcomes. Please know that the Menominee Tribe has a number of avenues at its disposal to fight an improper rejection, and we are strongly committed to pursuing them and making the Kenosha project a reality. We stand firmly by our plans and their major benefits for Kenosha, for the Menominee and for Wisconsin.


We continue to be grateful for the overwhelming welcome and strong support the Kenosha and Southeast Wisconsin community has given our project and our Tribe. In the end - even if we must battle an illegal and politically motivated denial - we are confident that the facts and the law will determine the Kenosha project should and must be approved.


Lisa Waukau, Chair

Laurie Boivin, Vice Chair

Show your continued support for the Kenosha project and casino competition by signing our online petition.

Friday, October 10, 2008

UW Research on Menominee’s Unmeet Needs Gains Media Attention

There’s a good story in today’s Kenosha News on the UW/La Follette School study. Here’s the first part:
Study: Local casino would aid tribe
Menominees say revenue is necessary for them to thrive


BY JOE POTENTE
jpotente@kenoshanews.com

A recent study by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor says a Kenosha casino would help to reverse many of the negative effects that the Menominee Nation has suffered since the federal government terminated the tribe in the 1950s.


The report, commissioned and paid for by the tribe, was submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in response to questions about the proposed casino’s effects on the tribe’s unmet needs, a project spokesman said Thursday.

Dennis Dresang, a professor in the UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs, wrote that revenue from the Kenosha casino would make “a significant, measurable difference for the Menominee in their struggle to overcome the shattering economic and cultural aftereffects of termination.”

Without the revenue, Dresang said, the tribe’s ability to care for its nearly 8,500 members is severely compromised.
You can read the full story here.

Sign our online petition and say yes to casino competition in SE Wisconsin.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

UW Study Finds Kenosha Project Could Right Federal Government’s Wrongs

WisPolitics has a great story this morning about a study of the Menominee Tribe conducted by the researchers at the University of Wisconsin’s prestigious La Follette School of Public Affairs. The story – and the study itself – is especially good reading for anyone who doesn’t realize the economic and social turmoil the Menominee have suffered at the hands of the federal government.

Take a look:

The Menominee Nation continues to struggle economically 50 years after the federal government decided to terminate its status as a recognized tribe and the best option to improve its plight is an off-reservation casino, according to a new report compiled by three UW-Madison researchers.

The study was paid for by the tribe, which is seeking federal approval to turn a Kenosha dog track into a casino. The Forest County Potawatomi have opposed the project, which has been pending before federal regulators for some time.

Co-author Dennis Dresang said the researchers went into the study with no preconceived notions and the study was not influenced by the tribe's desire to win approval for an off-reservation casino.

He said because the tribe is not near any population centers, it has few other options besides an off-reservation casino to generate the kind of money needed to address its needs. Dresang said one other option for the tribe could be exploring more ecotourism considering some of the natural resources in the area. But that would also mean turning culturally important areas into a tourist destination, which some Menominee would be hesitant to do.

"They don't want another Wisconsin Dells springing up in the area," Dresang said. "But even that, considering what a casino-convention center near Chicago is going to generate, man, that's just a no-brainer."'

According to the report, the tribe was prospering in the 1950s with a successful sawmill and a fully functioning government, a law enforcement agency, infrastructure and schools. Because of that success, the federal government targeted the Menominee for an experiment to end rights and protections based on past treaties and strip the tribe of its federally cognized status. Dresang said the experiment was considered a reward at the time for the Menominee's success, but came to be viewed as a mistake.

There’s also a video summary of the study featuring Professor Dresang, as well as a news release from the La Follette School.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF8t-zdtyEw

As the federal government continues to review the Menominee’s Kenosha casino application, the La Follette School research is yet more proof of the project’s major benefits for Wisconsin.

Say yes to the Kenosha casino and casino competition in Southeast Wisconsin by signing our online petition.