Van Thu Tran gets THREE Years for Cheating Pechanga OF $2 Million; FBI Ignores Theft of $400 Million BY Pechanga

A woman who admitted helping to mastermind a casino card-shuffling scam to garner millions of dollars from casinos around the country and Canada -- including Pechanga in Temecula -- was sentenced to three years in prison Friday.

According to FBI officials, Van Thu Tran and up to 41 others cheated some 39 casinos in the United States and Canada out of $7 million, using a shuffle scam that involved bribing dealers to keep blocs of cards unshuffled.

Tran admitted forming the Tran Organization with co-defendants Phuong Quoc Truong, Tai Khiem Tran and some others.

Members of the criminal organization bribed casino card dealers and supervisors to perform false shuffles during card games, thereby creating “slugs,” or groups of unshuffled cards.

The conspirators would arrange to have someone count cards, then signal to a dealer to leave a bloc of cards unshuffled, so that the criminals could bet on the previous order of cards, according to the FBI.

The scam was perpetrated during blackjack and mini-baccarat games, the FBI reported

The FBI, active in this case has completely ignored the theft of $400 million by the Pechanga tribe, acting outside the tribal constitution.

Pala Vice Chairman Leroy Miranda ARRESTED for Drunk In Public.

First convicted of lewd conduct, now drunk in public. The real charge should be violations of the civil rights of 160 Pala people.   Congratulations Leroy, you lewd, drunk jerk.

The vice chairman of the Pala Band of Mission Indians was arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public at the tribe's casino early Saturday morning, according to the Sheriff's Department.

Deputies were called to the casino at 1:47 a.m., according to a Sheriff's Department report. Pala Vice Chairman Leroy Miranda, 46, was arrested shortly after deputies arrived at 2:56 a.m. Miranda was booked into the Vista jail at 4:13 a.m. and later released, according to the Sheriff's Department.

Officials at the Valley Center sheriff's station declined Tuesday to comment on the details of the incident.

Miranda was elected vice chairman of the tribe in 2001, one of six members of the tribe's governing council. He is the director of the Cupa Cultural Center, a museum on the reservation, according to the tribe's website.

Doug Elmets, a spokesman for Pala, said the tribe is reviewing the incident and declined further comment.

"The allegations are currently under investigation and the executive committee of the tribe will review the circumstances of the incident," Elmets said in a written statement.

Miranda was previously cited for allegedly soliciting a prostitute at the Happy Time Adult Book Store Nov. 6, 2009, in Moreno Valley, according to court records. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of lewd conduct in February 2010.

Take a look at http://palawatch.com for MORE on the Pala situation.

October 6 Anti-Disenrollment Demonstration Scheduled. Group That Disenrolled 50% of Tribe is Angry They Got Disenrolled.

There is going to be a demonstration at the Chukchansi Casino against the disenrollment actions by the current regime.   This regime disenrolled the previous regime that disenrolled 500 people.   Now, they see the tragedy of tribal disenrollment

PLEASE, if you are in the area, GO.   Call Chukchansi and ask them WHY they are disenrolling STILL?

Cherokee Nation Chief Bill John Baker Denounces Offensive actions By MA Senator Scott Brown Staffers

No word on his denunciation of candidate Elizabeth Warren's fake claim of Cherokee ancestry.  Nevertheless, he is correct on this issue 

The Cherokee Nation is disappointed in and denounces the disrespectful actions of staffers and supporters of Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. The conduct of these individuals goes far beyond what is appropriate and proper in political discourse. The use of stereotypical “war whoop chants” and “tomahawk chops” are offensive and downright racist. It is those types of actions that perpetuate negative stereotypes and continue to minimize and degrade all native peoples.

The individuals involved in this unfortunate incident are high ranking staffers in both the senate office and the Brown campaign. A campaign that would allow and condone such offensive and racist behavior must be called to task for their actions.

The Cherokee Nation is a modern, productive society, and I am blessed to be their chief. I will not be silent when individuals mock and insult our people and our great nation.

We need individuals in the United States Senate who respect Native Americans and have an understanding of tribal issues. For that reason, I call upon Sen. Brown to apologize for the offensive actions of his staff and their uneducated, unenlightened and racist portrayal of native peoples.

-Bill John Baker, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation

Live Nation/House of Blues Will Be Booking Acts On Apartheid Practicing Indian Reservation

Pechanga Resort & Casino announced Monday that the entertainment giant, Live Nation and its House of Blue Entertainment division will begin booking entertainment acts for the casino.

"You'll probably start seeing shows booked by Live Nation in 2013, maybe slightly before," said Pechanga Resort & Casino Public Relations Manager Robert Bledsoe.

According to Bledsoe, Pechanga logs more than seven million visitors per year, and the tribally-owned facility ranks as the second most visited entertainment resort in California, and the top casino facility. For the past few months, the casino has been searching for new alternatives to its already successful entertainment ventures.

"We have been looking at different promoters and booking agents, because we felt it was time to move our entertainment to the next level," Bledsoe said. "Most importantly, what we're really trying to do is repositioni ourselves as one of Southern California's top venues ---- casino or not."

Descendent of Cherokee Slaves' Freedmen President Marilyn Vann to Speak at Humboldt State

If you are in Northern California TUESDAY OCTOBER 9th  5:30-7 p.m.

The Native Pathways Speakers presents Ms. Marilyn Vann, who will speak on the Cherokee Freedmen.

Marilyn is President of the Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes Association, a non-profit that educates the public on the history, culture, and political rights of the African Indian peoples of the 5 nations (formerly known as the Five civilized Tribes) whose ancestors were enrolled as “freedmen” tribal members by the US government Dawes Commission approximately 100 years ago. She is also President of the African Indians Foundation, a 501c3 Corporation. She is lead plaintiff in a Federal lawsuit against the US government department of interior, Vann et Al Versus Norton, which deals with the enforcement of the 1866 treaty rights of the Cherokee Indian Freedmen Peoples in accordance with the Cherokee Nation constitution.

Marilyn has written articles pertaining to the Indian freedmen issue which have been published in the Native American Times, the Muskogee Daily Phoenix newspaper and the Oklahoma Eagle newspaper. Marilyn has also been featured in the Los Angeles Times and Wired Magazine, the Daily Oklahoman newspaper, the New York Times, and www.indianz.com. She has also participated on various panels sponsored or co-sponsored by different universities and non profit or civic organizations pertaining to Native American issues, including two on Cherokee freedmen issues which were sponsored by Congresspersons Diane Watson and John Conyers at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Conference in September 2007 and September 2008.

The Native Pathways Speaker Series is a student run initiative sponsored by Many Tribal Nations, the Department of Native American Studies, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Associated Students.

Democratic Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren Defending her "Fake" Heritiage

You'd think Warren would have some shame, but ..no
Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren responded to a TV ad attacking her use of her Native American ancestry with her own ad that directly addresses the controversy.

Monday morning, the campaign of Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown released a TV ad attacking Warren on the question of whether she used of her Native American heritage to benefit her career.

Asked about the ad at an event Monday morning, Warren declined to address it directly. But by the evening, the Warren campaign had shot back a response. In an ad featuring Warren talking directly to the camera, Warren offers a similar explanation to one she gave in Thursday’s night’s debate.

Warren says in the ad that as a kid, she never asked her parents for documentation of her heritage. “What kid would?” she asks. She says her parents eloped because father’s family didn’t like that her mother was part Cherokee and part Delaware. “Let me be clear,” Warren says. “I never asked for and never got any benefit because of my heritage. The people who hired me have all said they didn’t even know about it.”

A new controversy shows Elizabeth Warren practicing law without a license.

You can read more about the Elizabeth Warren controversy at Twila Barnes Blog: Thoughts From Polly’s Granddaughter

Mark Macarro,Leader of Tribe That Steals Millions from It's People, Violates Their Civil and Human Rights Among California's Political Elite

Congratulations Governor Jerry Brown, you turn away from protecting the rights of Native Americans in California by listening the Mark Macarro?

Capitol Weekly Has the Top List


44. Mark Macarro Mark Macarro of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians was on the ground floor of making tribal gaming acceptable to the public in California: He backed critical ballot propositions and he put the issue front and center in the Capitol. The gaming tribes wield significant influence in the Capitol and Pechanga is no exception. Issues include tribal gaming compacts, which the tribes will have to negotiate with the governor, and a new round of debates in 2013 over online gaming and sports wagering.

Macarro tried to keep Californian's from voting on expanded gaming.  Should he have a say in whether California has online gaming?

It's time to make casino gaming LEGAL in California.

Chukchansi Continues to Decimate their Population. Should They Have to Go Through Recognition Process?

Word coming through that the Chukchansi tribal council has sent out MORE disenrollment letters. IS THIS STILL THE TRIBE that was federally recognized? Is it time to suspend their recognition and make them go through the process again?

Robinson Rancheria Disenrollments: Purges in Indian Country

Will Parrish writes about disenrollment at Robinson Rancheria and other northern California tribes at COUNTERPUNCH. For as far back as Clayton Duncan can trace, the maternal side of his family has belonged to the land in and around Robinson Rancheria: a federal Indian reservation near the sleepy Lake County, Northern California, town of Nice, a 107 acre parcel that resulted from the 1978 federal court case United States Government vs. Mabel Duncan (Clayton’s grandmother). For thousands of years, the family was part of a thriving complex of cultures that white anthropologists dubbed “Eastern Pomo.” In the past 160 years or more, they have been key figures in keeping alive what remains of those cultures.

Duncan’s great grandfather, Solomon Moore, grew up in the Eastern Pomo village of Shigom, on the east side of Clear Lake. Clayton’s grandmother, Lucy Moore, hailed from the village of Danoha, situated along an eastern affluent of lower Scott Creek, near where Highway 29 curls around Clear Lake on its way to “Kelsyville,” so named for a notorious mid-19th century butcherer, enslaver, and rapist of Indians.

The Danoha village of Lucy Moore prefigured the location of the old Robinson Rancheria, where Duncan and his siblings grew up. It was also roughly the site of one of the most grisly episodes of genocidal violence that white invaders wrought on Northern California’s native populations during the Gold Rush era: the 1850 Bloody Island Massacre.

These are the barest details of that gruesome episode: A US Cavalry regiment under Lt. Nathaniel Lyon shot and butchered as many as 400 Pomo people in a retaliatory rampage after a group of Native people rose up and killed their brutal enslavers, ranchers Charles Stone and Andrew Kelsey. It was an incident in which the victims at Bloody Island had no involvement. The vast majority of those whose lives the US Army laid down were women and children.

Lucy Moore was present at Bloody Island on that day. She eluded a gruesome and utterly senseless death by hiding underwater, breathing for many hours through a tule reed. She was six years old at the time. Clayton Duncan has lived his whole life acutely aware that his very existence is a miracle.

One of the greatest measures of redemption for the Eastern Pomo and the Duncan family was the David vs. Goliath battle with the US government that Mabel Duncan carried out in the 1970s in an effort to restore federal recognition of the Robinson Rancheria. Congress had “terminated” the rez in 1956, as part of a legislative push to dismantle the reservation system as a whole, which was curtailed only after the American Indian Movement arose in the ’70s. Mabel Duncan was more than 70 years old at the time a federal judge ruled in her favor, creating a new sanctuary for her people.

Clayton Duncan became the Robinson Rancheria’s inaugural vice chairperson, helping the people who moved their secure homes, sanitation, and housing. He has worked in countless ways to preserve and extend his people’s cultural traditions and values on the rez ever since.

As UC Santa Barbara sociologist George Lipsitz has written, however, “In its terminal stages, genocide can look like suicide.” Nowadays, the main barriers to justice that people like Clayton Duncan face frequently come from within their own ranks. The official power structure on innumerable Indian reservations are made up of self-interested carpetbaggers. As many observers and supporters of traditional native people’s values have pointed out, these are often the people who have most adapted themselves to the materialistic values of the dominant society, and who are best equipped to manipulate the reservation system’s dysfunctional power relations for their own personal gain.

Read more on TRIBAL PURGES

More on Democratic Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren's Family Native American MYTHOLOGY vs Geneology from Twila Barnes

Democratic candidate for Senate in MA Elizabeth Warren used false information to trade on Native American values in getting a job at Harvard. Twila Barnes, who writes at the blog Thoughts from Polly's Granddaughter continues her expose: **September 15, 2012, a story came out in the Boston Globe that had a picture of Harry Reed and a caption that said, "Harry Reed was part Indian, say descendants." The article that followed was very long, full of misconceptions about Cherokee history and based on nothing but family lore. The article is so long, I will write a series of posts dealing with one topic at a time so my readers don't get lost in the information.**

In the article by the Globe, Ina Mapes says her grandmother, Laura Crawford, said her grandfather, Everett Reed, "had one-quarter tribal blood." Everett was the brother of Elizabeth Warren's grandfather, Harry Reed. Later in the article, Warren's brother says Harry Reed was "part Delaware, a little bitty bit, way back." Everett and Harry had the same parents, Joseph H. Reed and Charity Gorman. So how could one be a quarter Indian blood and the other be a little bitty bit?

If they were truly Indian, whatever parent that blood came through would most likely be identified as an Indian. The grandparent definitely would have. No matter what people like to claim today, full bloods and half bloods did not pass for white. It was not how one identified themselves, but how the community they lived in viewed them.

Indians did not exist in a vacuum. The blood would come through a continuous line of Indians, not just one. And at some time, those Indians that blood came through would have to be found living among their people. They would not be found in genealogical records listed as white going back to at least 1760, as the Reeds are. You can find their genealogy by going to Elizabeth Warren, who do you think you are? and Elizabeth Warren, Who Do You Think You Are - Part 2. Notice in Part 2, the aunt of Harry and Everett Reed writes a letter to her son, cousin to Harry and Everett, telling him his pa is afraid he will be exposed to the Indians.

Read more:Polly’s Granddaughter TEXT

Judge Rules That Santa Ysabel Tribe Can't Claim Sovereignty At It's Convenience.

Santa Ysabel wanted to file bankruptcy, but as a sovereign government, they aren't allowed to.  They tried to say their business enterprise is a separate unit.   LOL.  Try to sue them for damages and see how quickly they'd claim sovereignty.

Here's the story:

The future of the Santa Ysabel Casino, its 120 employees, and the tribe that owns it, is as unpredictable as when a jackpot might hit on any of its slot machines.

The tribe owes nearly $54 million to creditors, and has virtually no money to pay them. It is embroiled in several legal battles and have lost several others. It owes the Yavapai Apache Nation of Arizona tens of millions of dollars in loans and San Diego County $3 million more for services the tribe has promised to pay for but never has.

The small tribe with big dreams has descended into a financial black hole.

The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this summer, but a judge ruled Sept. 4 that the casino is not an unincorporated company, as the tribe argued, but instead that the casino and the tribe are one and the same. As a federally recognized tribe, it is ineligible for bankruptcy under the law because a tribe is a governmental unit. That means the tribe is on the hook for what it owes.

In Sacramento Superior Court, the Apaches are arguing they should receive money earmarked for the Santa Ysabel tribe under the “Revenue Sharing Trust Fund,” which the California Gambling Control Commission administers.

The tribe depends on that money for its basic day-to-day running of its government.

Trust funds are available to all tribes that do not have gaming enterprises or have small casinos with fewer than 350 slot machines. The Santa Ysabel Casino has 349 machines, which it leases from another creditor. The money comes from the bigger gaming tribes as shared revenue and amounts to $1.1 million annually

The commission is withholding the latest quarterly payment from the fund, and the Santa Ysabel tribe is suing the state in San Diego federal court to get the commission to release it.

Read the rest of the story HERE

Pechanga's THEFT of Per Capita and Benefits Stolen From Disenrolled and Moritorium Bound Members Tops $400 MILLION

$400 MILLION!  Remember that the next time Pechanga gives $5,000 to a school. 


 The Apis/Manuela Miranda family was disenrolled two years prior, in 2004, our previous posts mistakenly put their disenrollment in 2005. The per capita was slightly less, about $17,000 per month times 102 months of termination: $1,734,000 times 135 adults equals: $234,090,000

The Hunter family has lost $1,742,000 per person, in per capita payments alone. We arrived at that figure by taking the last full year of per capita $268,000/12 months ($22,333 per month) and multiplying that loss times 78 months of disenrollment. 95 adults at the time of disenrollment equals: $165,487,000

These totals do not include lost education assistance nor does it account for family members that attained the age of majority.

Moratorium People NEVER shared in what was rightfully theirs. The per capita went up to $360,000 per year for those remaining after elimination of tribal citizens. But the moratorium people have certainly had over $2 MILLION dollars cheated from them.

And the tribe will say, “it’s not about the money”. There are 400 MILLION reasons why that's a lie. But here are the consequences of Pechanga's unconstitutional actions:


Pechanga now has a group living on the reservation that have:

• Lost the right to vote
• Lost their rights to healthcare provided by the government.
• Their children can no longer attend tribal schools
• They can no longer be buried in the reservation cemetery with their relatives.
• Have no access to tribal health center
• Are not protected by the Tribal Rangers.

The TEMECULA PATCH HAS PICKED UP THE POST

Stripping of Tribal Citizenship is Wrong. Genocide by Paper #stopdisenrollment

This is a re-post of an earlier blog post. 
I find it disconcerting that in all the years we have had mass terminations of tribal citizenships, no politician has stood up for those Indians who have been harmed by their tribe.  (See:  Like Being Raped and Going to your Rapist for Justice)

When you give it a cute moniker like “disenrollment”, it takes on the context of, say, losing you membership in the P. T. A. And that makes it simpler for a politician to take tribal money and with the phrase, “tribes can choose their own membership” they can avoid taking a closer look at what it really entails.

Take American citizenship, the U.S. Government can strip an American of citizenship for few reasons, here’s one from US CODE 1481:

7) committing any act of treason against, or attempting by force to overthrow, or bearing arms against, the United States, violating or conspiring to violate any of the provisions of section 2383 of title 18, or willfully performing any act in violation of section 2385 of title 18, or violating section 2384 of title 18 by engaging in a conspiracy to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, if and when he is convicted thereof by a court martial or by a court of competent jurisdiction.

We are talking about treason or overthrowing the government as a serious offense. No disenrollees have threatened overthrow of their tribal government. No bearing arms against tribal councils. In Indian Country, you can lose your citizenship for simply disagreeing with the tribal council. Putting a “wrong” member on the council or speaking your mind about their business entities can get one stripped of their citizenship.

How many American’s have been stripped of their citizenship, can you name ONE? Has Charles Manson lost his citizenship? No. How about American terrorists who advocate death to American and sharia law? Nope, uh-uh, but in Indian Country, the number is in the THOUSANDS. We have tribes like Snoqualmie in Washington, that have stripped citizenship simply for taking a position opposite of the tribal council.

On the Pechanga Reservation in Temecula, Original Pechanga allottee descendents have had their citizenship taken away, along with voting rights, the right to health care, the right to speak at meeting, even when the situation is directly relating to them, such as water rights. It's virtual apartheid. Pechanga, headed my Mark Macarro, the subject of a recall attempt, tried to usurp the water rights of allottees, lying to congressional staffers about how many allottees were still on the reservation. Redding Rancheria even terminated 25% of their tribe, including their FIRST Tribal chairman. We have tribes like Snoqualmie in Washington, that have stripped citizenship simply for taking a position opposite of the tribal council. And the Picayune Rancheria already terminated 50% of their tribe and are looking at more.

We have politicians who turn a blind eye, because stripping citizenship comes now with a cute moniker: disenrollment. The same politicians who rightfully found the apartheid policy of sovereign country of South Africa abhorrent, now side with tribes who are practicing the same apartheid in their own districts. Equally confusing, the NAACP in CA has taken money from tribes that violate their people's civil rights. We can't get the ACLU to be interested and the Native American Rights Fund won't help those Native Americans who have lost their RIGHTS.

Politicians in CA who were vehemently appalled over neighbor state Arizona’s stricter immigration enforcement laws, going so far as to shrilly calling for boycotting that state over ‘possible’ civil rights violation, are supporting tribes who have actually stripped voting rights, health care, per capita (now totaling $500 million), elder care, educational assistance. They recently passed the Dream Act providing educational assistance to non-citizens, yet won’t stand up for actual citizens.

They tell themselves “well it’s only 9 people, or it’s only 75 people”. Yet how many does it have to be to make it wrong? 75 Redding tribal members, stripped of their citizenship is akin to 80 million Americans losing theirs. The Picayune Rancheria took away citizenship to fully 50% of their tribal people. When is it wrong, or rather “wrong enough”. Would they stand up for union members who didn’t get to vote? Or what if say, the GOP got 25% of Democrats excluded? Would it be wrong? Of course it would.

It’s past time to take it seriously and to stand up for the rights of the individual Indian.

Our government needs to do its job and stand up for the weak and defenseless. Exercising its moral outrage includes:

1. Eliminate funding for tribes who violate the rights of their people.
2. No longer take land into trust for abusive tribes
3. Place enforcement actions into the Indian Civil Rights Act

Tribes have a right to do wrong, but they shouldn’t be supported by our politicians when they do.

Governor Brown allows North Fork Rancheria to Reservation Shop

Governor approves Highway 99 Mono casino Chukchansi tribal leaders say Brown chose Las Vegas developers over California voters Brian Wilkinson (Updated: Thursday, September 06, 2012, 12:56 PM) Governor Jerry Brown approved the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians' plans last Friday to build a multi-million dollar casino on Highway 99, north of Madera near Ave. 17.

Brown's Aug. 31 decision follows the Sept. 1, 2011 approval of the $350 million casino by the Department of Interior/Bureau of Indian Affairs to allow the tribe to proceed with the casino, about 40 miles from North Fork.

Brown concurred with the department's approval that stated the casino would be in the best interest of the tribe, would not be detrimental to the surrounding community, would be built on lands historically connected to the tribe and would enjoy local support.

In a letter to Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar, Brown said the federal administrative process was extremely thorough, lasting more than seven years, including numerous hearings and generated thousands of pages of administrative records.

Tribal Council Chairperson Elaine Bethel Fink said the governor's approval was a necessary step in the process and the 1,900 member tribe is looking forward to completing the process and making their dreams come true.

The project now awaits final approval by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the state legislature. "The casino is going to bring a big economical boost to the Central Valley," Bethel Fink said. Tribal spokesman Charles Banks-Altekruse said the project has been in the planning process for nearly a decade.

"The project has been poured over, scrutinized, subjected to numerous rule revisions by numerous state and federal administrations ... Democratic and Republican ... and still it has prevailed and moved forward," Banks-Altekruse said. "Although we have passed the largest hurdles in the rigorous approval process, several state and federal steps remain. And, so while a few narrow special interest groups may still try to oppose and obstruct us, we feel momentum and justice are on our side. Our tribe remains focused on one goal: working with our local partners and supporters to push this thing across the line and begin construction as soon as possible to generate jobs, economic opportunity and community funding for Madera County."

Along with Brown's approval came a new 110-page, 20-year compact between the state and the tribe, providing millions of dollars in shared gaming revenue with the state, Madera County and the cities of Madera and Chowchilla, other agencies and tribes. The new compact nullifies the compact signed in 2008 by then Gov. Schwarzenegger although the provisions of the compact are almost identical.

Even the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians, who operate Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Coarsegold and were the project's biggest opponents, will benefit from the new compact. In an effort to mitigate the expected loss of revenue to Chukchansi because of the new casino, the Mono tribe will pay Chukchansi up to $760,000 per quarter, from the time they receive their construction financing until the casino opens. When the casino opens, Chukchansi will receive 2.5% on the net win from slot machines through 2020. The compact calls for the revenue sharing to top out at 3.5% if annual slot revenue exceeds more than $200 million.

Still, Chukchansi officials said they will be exploring litigation options and urging the California legislature to be wary of approving any tribal-state gaming compact with the Mono tribe. If the compact is approved, the Mono tribe will also give 2.5% of slot winnings after opening for life to the Wiyot Tribe in Northern California to keep that tribe from building a casino on environmentally sensitive areas of Humboldt Bay.

Maryann McGovran, who has been on the Mono tribal council for eight years -- the past four as tribal council vice chairperson -- said the tribe is happy with the compact because it gives a lot of money to the local community and other tribes throughout California.

Pat Beihn, who has been on the Mono tribal council for 15 years, said he was very proud of Gov. Brown for his courage in making the right decision.

Regardless of the mitigation measures, Chukchansi officials were quick to criticize Brown's decision. In a statement released within hours of the governor's announcement, Reggie Lewis, Chukchansi tribal chairman, said "Today, Governor Brown chose Las Vegas developers over the California voters. We continue to strongly oppose the policy of 'reservation shopping' that has been pushed by non-Indian Las Vegas developers who encourage tribes to claim territorial rights far away from their current lands to achieve a better gaming market."

Bethel Fink has previously stated that the reservation shopping argument was not accurate because federal law allows tribes with no land, or land inadequate for development, to appeal to put new lands in trust, a rigorous process that the Department of Interior reviews on a case by case basis.

Lewis said in the statement that Brown failed to follow the California Environmental Quality Act that requires state agencies to identify environmental impacts of the project and to mitigate those impacts, and that he also failed to conduct an independent analysis of whether the North Fork tribe has a historical connection to the proposed casino site. With Brown's approval, the BIA is now in a position to issue a Record of Decision on the 6,500 page final Environmental Impact Study released in August, 2010, which would allow the land to be placed in trust.

"There have been plenty of opportunities over the years for people to weigh-in on the environmental study and we have mitigated every issue that was brought up," McGovran said. Lewis also said the governor's approval "has essentially opened the floodgates for off-reservation gaming in California ... communities throughout the state should be prepared to see casinos pop-up right in the middle of their neighborhoods and downtown."

http://www.sierrastar.com/2012/09/06/59282/governor-approves-highway-99-mono.html