Shoshone-Bannock Gamble Advances Other Tribes Fear Pact Could Imperil All Casinos

After days of lobbying, North Idaho’s Indian tribes failed to persuade a legislative committee to delay a compact that threatens the future of tribal gambling operations.

The House State Affairs Committee, in a 12-9 vote, approved a gambling compact with the Shoshone-Bannock tribe - but without an amendment providing for a moratorium on a court challenge to tribal gambling.

As a result, the Shoshone-Bannock’s compact allows the state to seek a federal court ruling on the legality of electronic gaming machines on the tribe’s southeastern Idaho reservation.

The three northern tribes - Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai and Nez Perce - that have compacts with the state fear that a court dispute will endanger their own gambling rights.

David Matheson, head of gambling operations for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, along with several others, pleaded for a moratorium on the litigation portion of the compact until next year. The tribes propose to use the time to continue negotiating with Gov. Dirk Kempthorne on an agreement to limit the growth of their gambling operations.

“Our Indian people in Idaho have been lost on a sea of poverty and despair for too long,” he said. “We have a lifeline today that’s been thrown to us. It’s keeping us afloat.”

He added, “We don’t believe that there’s any such thing as a friendly lawsuit. Either you’re friends and neighbors or you’re not.”

Ernie Stensgar, chairman of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, told the committee that before gambling there was apathy on the reservation and an 80 percent unemployment rate.

Now, he said, the reservation is one of the largest employers in the region, with 800 workers. He said that North Idaho tribes fully support the Shoshone-Bannock right to a compact, but not the provision allowing the state to take the gambling issue to court.

“I think with the AG’s office … not with litigation, we could all work out an agreement,” Stensgar said. “We can show that we can stop gaming from expanding more but still meet the needs of tribal people.” Deputy Attorney General David High said that even if the state and the Shoshone-Bannocks go to court in the next few months, it could be a year or more before the case makes its way through the federal district court and, inevitably, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

But Matheson and others fear the damage will already be done if the legislation makes it through the full House and Senate.

“This is like a cloud hanging over someone’s property,” Matheson said. “Our vendors are not going to give us long-term agreements. We are not going to be able to get the financing like we have been able to get.”

Despite Thursday’s committee approval, the Shoshone-Bannock compact still must be OK’d by both houses of the Legislature.

“The chief executive of this state has made a move toward peace, and we have taken a seat next to him,” said Jaime Pinkham, treasurer of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee. “What we present to you is a chance for harmony. … All we are asking for is time to use goodwill.”

But Shoshone-Bannock leaders, the day after a nasty public dust-up with the Panhandle tribes over their position, and the bill’s legislative supporters urged the committee to reject the idea of a delay in taking the issue to court.

And since Kempthorne has refused to openly endorse the call for a moratorium even while privately supporting it, those opposed to holding off implementation were free to cite the governor’s publicly unqualified support for their position.

Kempthorne’s signature on the compact “speaks rather loudly as to what the governor’s intentions are in this matter,” Republican Rep. Kent Kunz of Pocatello said.

They argued that the Panhandle tribes could continue negotiations with the Kempthorne administration while the issue is pending in court, that adding the moratorium might doom the agreement in the Legislature and that the Fort Hall casino is at risk of being shut down unless a compact with the state is approved.

“That is what we are here to avoid,” said Scott Crowell, an attorney representing the Shoshone-Bannocks.

U.S. Attorney Betty Richardson, who has been urged in the past by state officials to enforce the federal law against Indian gambling without a state compact, said more recently she was asked to show restraint as long as the state and Shoshone-Bannocks - Idaho’s largest tribe - were continuing to talk.

All four representatives from North Idaho who sit on the committee voted against the motion to pass the legislation without an amendment for the northern tribes.

“This year they (the tribes from North Idaho) came down and were willing to support the Sho-Ban compact,” said Rep. June Judd, D-St. Maries. “But, I can’t vote for anything that would put the North Idaho tribes in jeopardy.”