AKWESASNE, NEW YORK — The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, against Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne. The suit contains two counts, charging the Secretary with undue delay and acting in bad faith with respect to the Tribe’s fully completed, yet inexplicably languishing land into trust application.

The Tribe’s suit serves as a “motion to compel” Secretary Kempthorne to take action and issue a decision, WITHIN 30 DAYS, on the application to place 29.31 acres of land in Sullivan County into trust for the Tribe. In December 2006, Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Cason issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Tribe’s fee-to-trust application, indicating the Tribe had met the federal regulations for environmental review. In February 2007, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer gave his concurrence completing the two-part determination required by Section 20 of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) and executed a tribal-state compact. All that remains is a final action by the Department to acquire the parcel into federal trust status in accordance with Section 5 of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA).

“It is unfortunate that we have to file a lawsuit to compel the Secretary to do his job, and it is unacceptable that our completed application has been pending at the Department for nearly nine months,” said Tribal Chief Lorraine M. White. “The Secretary cannot unilaterally ignore the law and simultaneously ignore his fiduciary responsibility to the Mohawk people and his oath of office. The Secretary has a constitutional responsibility to faithfully implement federal laws that he is charged to oversee and execute, and in our case, that includes both the IGRA and the IRA. Like any federal law, both of these statutes must be upheld and enforced.”

Chief White continued, “Dirk Kempthorne is but one man appointed with the consent of the Senate. As a public servant, he cannot pick and choose the laws he likes versus the ones he thinks should be ignored.”

The Secretary inserted himself into the professional staff decision making process, even though under the authority of Secretarial Order 3529, Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Cason assumed the duties and responsibilities of approving this fee-to-trust application. Because Secretary Kempthorne has circumvented Departmental practice of allowing the staff to finalize the 151 process, Mohawk tribal leaders and Governor Spitzer have made repeated requests to meet in person with him to discuss the matter. The Tribe and the Governor’s request for a joint meeting never received a response.

“A slew of our requests to meet with Secretary Kempthorne have been met with nothing but deafening silence, which sadly speaks volumes about what appears to be a personal bias towards gaming as a viable economic development vehicle for sovereign Nations,” said Tribal Chief Barbara Lazore. “It is important to note that in his confirmation hearing, when asked by the Senate about his personal views of off-reservation gaming, at the time Secretary-designate Kempthorne candidly stated that while he did not support ‘reservation shopping’ he promised a Senate Committee that, ‘if confirmed he would continue to implement the provisions of Section 20 of IGRA.’ At best he has not lived up to his word, and at worst the Secretary misled the Congress of the United States.”

Since the signing of the concurrence and state compact, the Tribe, Governor Spitzer, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, U.S. Congressman Maurice Hinchey, House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel and numerous local leaders and unions have all expressed unprecedented support for the application. All have repeatedly called on the Secretary to stop stalling and issue a decision to approve taking the Monticello site into federal trust status.

Earlier this month, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a hearing on the backlog of land into trust applications at the Interior. The Tribe, Sullivan County and the Village of Monticello submitted testimony along with many other tribes who also have pending applications that have gone unanswered by the Secretary.

According to St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Attorney Dale White, in the past lawsuits of this type have, “brought light into dark rooms and have righted wrongs against Tribes.” In 1997, the Lake Superior Chippewa Indian Bands challenged a trust decision by then Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in the Hudson Dog Track case. The court found that the Bands made a “strong showing” of improper influence which ultimately led to a reopening of the public comment period. Attorneys for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe point to the Hudson Dog Track case as a prime example of how undue influence at the Interior Department resulted in harm to tribes. “Hopefully this is not another Hudson Dog Track case,” stated White.

As governor of Idaho, Kempthorne was adamantly opposed to “off-reservation” casinos. He is now in a different position, in charge of the Department of the Interior. Earlier this year, Cason, on the Department’s behalf, told the United South and Eastern Tribes (USET), “We’re in the process of trying to reconcile his views as governor and his activities as governor with his role as Secretary.”

Tribal Chief James Ransom said, “The Secretary needs to put aside his personal objections and recognize that New York is not Idaho, and that he is no longer a state governor, but a cabinet appointed official charged with implementing federal law. The New York State legislature passed a state law particularly inviting gaming to Sullivan County. This is unlike the Secretary’s experience as Governor of Idaho where there was strong opposition on both state and local levels to Indian gaming. Ignoring the rights of a sovereign state and a sovereign Indian Tribe combined with a pattern of misdirection, inaction and lack of communication threatens the integrity of all federal administrative proceedings.”

The Mohawk’s $600 million Monticello casino project involves construction of a grand 766,000 square-foot two-story casino and entertainment complex featuring approximately 125 table games, 3,500 slot machines, 24 poker tables, and numerous restaurant and retail venues. It is expected to generate more than 3,000 permanent jobs in an area of upstate New York that needs jobs and economic development now.

Source: The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe

CONTACT: The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe Public Information Office,
+1-518-358-2272 ext. 286