Rough Draft
SENATE COMMITTEE on GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION
Informational Hearing
“Review of the Tribal-State Gaming Compacts Between the State of California and the Yurok Tribe, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians”
April 10 & 11, 2007
State Capitol, Room 3191
Sacramento, California
Senator Dean Florez, Chair
CAROLYN VEAL-HUNTER: __________________ we are honored to be here today presenting to you the Yurok Tribe for discussion of the Tribal Gaming Compact that they have negotiated with the State. The Yurok Tribe has been seeking ratification of its compact for the past three consecutive legislative sessions, yet this is the first time a legislative hearing has taken place to allow them to tell their story.
Allow me, also, to thank Senator Pat Wiggins, who so ably picked up the ball when former Senator Chesbro, who advanced the Yurok Tribe agenda for the last two years, was termed out, along with Assemblywoman Patty Berg, who was also the Assembly champion for the Yurok Tribe.
When the voters passed Proposition 1A, the Indian Self-Reliance Amendment, it was tribes, like the Yurok Tribe, that they had in mind. Their compact, which we’ll hear about today, is not a cookie cutter approach to tribal gaming. Many of you have read articles in the Sacramento Bee about the poverty and lack of infrastructure at the Yurok tribal lands. This compact will allow the Tribe to begin to address core infrastructure issues, such as clean water, safe roads, and access to electricity and telephone service. The compact provides for 99 gaming devices on two separate locations; allows the Tribe to maintain access to RSTF funds; and gives them credit for infrastructure monies paid to Del Norte and Humboldt Counties for mitigation efforts. This compact has been embraced by the local community and they’ve also adopted an ordinance identical to the Tribal Labor Relations Ordinance approved by voters in Proposition 1A.
Without further ado, allow me to introduce the Yurok tribal members who have traveled here today to discuss their compact in greater detail. I have here with me at the table today, Chairwoman Maria Tripp; Vice-Chairwoman Bonnie Green; and senior attorney, John Corbett. Also, in the audience today, is staff attorneys Shawna McCovey(?) and Deputy Director Muretty(?) Wickey(?).
Thank you.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Okay.
MARIA TRIPP, CHAIRPERSON, YUROK TRIBE: Members of the committee and Chairman Florez, my name is Maria Tripp, and I am chair for the Yurok Tribe. And I wanted to thank you for this opportunity to testify this morning on behalf of the Tribe.
The Yurok people have lived along the banks of the Klamath River in rural northern California. We remain strong in culture, spirit and resolve despite years of economic and social hardship. We are California’s largest tribe and poorest tribe, with approximately 5,000 members—just over. Our reservation is comprised of nearly 58,000 acres of land across two counties—Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. Without a tax base or other revenue, business revenue, the Yurok Tribe does not have the resources to meet infrastructure, employment, or sustainable economic development needs. The majority of residencies on the upper part of our reservation lack even the basic services that are provided to everyone else in California, including electricity and telephones.
Our previously negotiated compact is the Humboldt Compact. It is a
class III compact and authorizes the Tribe to operate 99 gaming devices. We want to provide jobs to our people, where the poverty rate is an appalling 80 percent. We have traditionally been a resource-based tribe with extensive fisheries and forestry management programs. Conservation measures to protect the Pacific salmon fishery have greatly restricted Yurok’s subsistence fishing in recent years. However, the Yurok Tribe will continue to be a natural resource-based tribe even as we undertake job creation and other economic development endeavors with the revenue generated by our proposed gaming facility.
The majority of our reservation lands are held in fee by non-Indian interests. The State of California and both Humboldt and Del Norte Counties receive tax revenue to provide governmental services. Unfortunately, the financing system in rural California is broken. Our response has been, and will continue to be, to provide what public services we can offer to all residents of California, including use and access to our cross-deputized Yurok tribal public safety officers and our tribally operated water systems which provide most of the basic services on the reservation for Indian and non-Indian alike.
The Yurok Tribe’s large membership, our extreme economic need, and the limit on the number of gaming devices specified in our compact, prevent the Tribe from having to make any payments into the Revenue Sharing Trust Fund. Further, our compact allows us to remain entitled to the benefits of the Revenue Sharing Trust Fund. Revenue generated from our gaming facility is not expected to be very high. Due to our large membership and concomitant needs, our compact allows us the ability to deduct the amount to be paid to the State pursuant to entering into Intergovernmental Agreements with Humboldt and Del Norte Counties that would mitigate significant effects on the off-reservation environment that a gaming facility might cause. We have already demonstrated our capacity to work well with the counties to provide governmental services.
In conclusion, our gaming compact will give us some financial means to begin to address the economic problems we face. The longer the Yurok goes without the financial assistance gaming would allow, the more difficult it becomes to uphold the duties and responsibilities prescribed to us by our Yurok belief system and by our tribal constitution to reclaim our land base; to preserve and promote our culture; and to provide for the health, education, economy and social wellbeing of our members; and most importantly, to preserve, forever, our own survival.
Thank you.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Great. Thank you. Let me ask you a question about the reservation land, if I could. That was established in 1988?
JOHN CORBETT: Well, the reservation has been there way earlier. What happened is; there were two reservations created early in the nineteenth century when federal law limited the total number of reservations in California into four. Over the years you had several different Indian tribes up river, particularly the Hoopa; down river, the Iroq. The 1988 was really a division of the reservation, and the Yurok remained, in part, of what was their former reservation. So the reservation itself has been continuous, and Yurok residents and Yurok tribal and cultural activities have been continuous since the original European arrival.
SENATOR FLOREZ: And tell me about the Klamath Town site, then; that’s in federal trust?
MR. CORBETT: No, it isn’t. In our particular reservation there is a huge amount of allotment under federal policy. That allotment transferred most of the land to private fee interests within the reservation boundaries, and part of the Klamath Town site is in trust and part is not. And the reason why it’s so important on the private fee is; the citizens of the reservation are paying the counties their full share for taxes for services in the first place.
SENATOR FLOREZ: No. I understand. But for the purposes of this compact, the land in trust issue, at least for me, is extremely important, so it’s the reason I asked. Part is and part isn’t; is that correct?
MR. CORBETT: Yes.
SENATOR FLOREZ: And can you tell me, ultimately, what the reservation, in essence, looks like in terms of the non….is the reservation on the…
MR. CORBETT: Basically, it’s a natural resource tribe, so the reservation is one mile on each side of the Klamath River from the mouth up 46 miles.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Okay. The tribal members that live on reservation land; how many?
MR. CORBETT: I believe that’s approximately….well, are you talking on trust land or within the boundaries of the reservation?
SENATOR FLOREZ: Well, let’s do both—let’s do trust land and then the boundaries of their reservation.
MR. CORBETT: Eleven hundred on the reservation itself.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Eleven hundred on the reservation. And in trust land?
MR. CORBETT: We’d have to give an estimate, but I would say 500—something like that.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Five hundred in trust. And the aspects of the gaming class III; that would obviously be in trust lands?
MR. CORBETT: I believe some of the parcels are held in fee as currently listed; some are not. They would be acquired and put into trust lands, although we believe we own enough we could put the casino there. There are provisions for two sites—one is at Pame, which is owned by the Tribe trust land; and the other is, there’s available land on the Klamath side.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Okay. We’ll get into that in a minute. But the compact is set to expire in what year—the terms of this particular compact?
MR. CORBETT: I would have to check that.
UNIDENTIFIED: 2010.
MR. CORBETT: 2010.
SENATOR FLOREZ: The proposed compact?
UNIDENTIFIED: Umhmm.
SENATOR FLOREZ: To expire? Members have longer terms here than 2010 so I assume…
MR. CORBETT: I think that’s a reopener timeframe.
UNIDENTIFIED: Mr. Chairman, it looks like 2025.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Okay, 2025. How long would you have the compact last?
MR. CORBETT: Well, I think a perspective is; from the Yurok Tribe’s standpoint, we have been trying to negotiate a compact since 1999. We worked with multiple governors and we really feel we came to a compromise that’s acceptable to us.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Okay. Let’s go through the proposed compact in some sort of sequential order, if we could. I do have some questions on particular sections, so what I’m going to do is, I’m going to try to go through the compact in those sections. I will tell you, that I hope that you have the answers as we move through this because the basic question is, when does your compact end, and if you don’t know that part we’re going to have trouble going through the rest of it. So, let’s start with Section 4, which has to do with authorized permitted class III gaming.
Under the proposed compact the Tribe is allowed to operate two gaming facilities, as I think you have mentioned, primary and ancillary; is that correct?
MR. CORBETT: Yes.
SENATOR FLOREZ: And both must be in the Klamath Town site?
MR. CORBETT: Yes.
SENATOR FLOREZ: And the Klamath Town site is land in trust?
MR. CORBETT: Some of it is; some of it is not.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Is it fair to say, then, some of the class III gaming facilities will be in non-trust land?
MR. CORBETT: No, I don’t believe we’ve located the specific site; we’ve just authorized the Klamath site as the way the compact is negotiated.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Okay. I’m sorry—the Klamath Town site is where these two proposed facilities are going to be located?
MR. CORBETT: Yes, that’s correct, Sir.
SENATOR FLOREZ: But you just told me that the Klamath Town site isn’t necessarily all land in trust.
MR. CORBETT: Some of it is not in trust; some of it is in trust.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Is the class III gaming going to be in land in trust? It’s very simple; straightforward; you can’t get any more direct than that question.
MR. CORBETT: Yes. Because the timing and other matters, it will only be located on the trust land portions in the Klamath Town site.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Okay, thank you. And do you currently have a facility or does that need to be constructed?
MR. CORBETT: We have no gaming facility. We have our tribal headquarters, tribal court, tribal police and tribal housing at the Klamath Town site.
SENATOR FLOREZ: What are your construction plans? When do you expect to open your casino?
MR. CORBETT: Well, because this has been going on since 1999, we had some market studies done; those are now outdated and would have to be updated. There’s a situation where we would want to negotiate with the Klamath Community Services District. The Tribe has the capacity to provide sewer for itself and for the casino, however, that district needs the added volume of both tribal business to really succeed and right now it’s under cease and desist orders from the regional board and is unable to provide adequate facilities. So one part is; we’d have to complete negotiations with them. So, to really answer, it would not be in the near future; it would be one to two years out at the earliest.
SENATOR FLOREZ: One to two years out?
MR. CORBETT: Yes.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Okay. Is there any requirement to demonstrate local support for the construction of this casino—installation of slot machines? I mean, do you have anything to tell us—if there’s local support for this beyond telephone polls?
MR. CORBETT: Yes.
SENATOR FLOREZ: Okay.
MR. CORBETT: First of all, we have a great working relationship with local government. And so for example, California law is enforced under cross deputization with Humboldt and Del Norte Counties by tribal police; and vice versa, California police or the county sheriff’s office also enforces on the reservation. And as we mentioned in our earlier statement, many of the water systems are for Indian and non-Indian alike.
In addition, the compact has a huge incentive for us to cooperate locally, and that is, if we get agreements from local governments we can get set-asides from the revenue that goes to the State of California. And that is our intention, is to seek those set-asides. And as I said, we have some governmental services issues that will require cooperation to properly solve both entities.