Reid amendment would take back casino land from tribe

Sandra Chereb

Friday, July 13, 2001 | 10:46 a.m.

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid has sponsored an amendment to block a small band of Indians from acquiring 10 acres of land north of San Francisco where the tribe planned to operate a Las Vegas-style casino.

Reid, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, inserted the provision in the Interior Department's appropriations bill to "undo" the measure sponsored by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. last year.

An attorney for the 220-member Lytton band of the Pomo Indians suggested Reid was trying to protect the powerful casino industry in his home state and referred to Congress as an "Indian giver" for trying to take back what it has given already.

"I know that Sen. Reid's concern is preventing competition by Indian tribes for his constituency in Nevada," Anthony Cohen, an attorney for the tribe, told KUNR-Radio.

"There's been discussion about the theory that if Lytton succeeds it will open the flood gates for Indian casinos in California. ... and that's just not true," he said.

"The Lytton Band is certainly reflecting on the meaning of the old ethnic slur 'Indian giver' because it appears to us an Indian giver is the Congress of the United States. ... if it first gives something to an Indian tribe and takes it back six months later," Cohen said.

Reid spokesman Nathan Naylor confirmed Reid wrote the amendment that has passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and is pending on the Senate floor.

"We put the provision in. We're still waiting to see how this is going to play out," he said Thursday.

But Naylor would not comment on Reid's reasons or respond to Cohen's remarks.

Miller's three-sentence amendment inserted last year into a 150-page bill gave reservation status to the land in San Pablo -- a 25-minute drive from downtown San Francisco -- where the Lytton band wants to buy an existing card club and develop a casino.

Except for Palm Springs, the law marks the first time a California Indian tribe has had reservation land designated for Las Vegas-style gambling in the heart of an urban area.

The measure, passed in the final weeks of Congress and signed by President Clinton in December, took many by surprise, including other members of Congress and California Gov. Gray Davis.

Four Bay area card clubs and two charities filed a federal lawsuit in February seeking to block the band's casino and challenging Proposition 1A, the measure California voters approved in March 2000 allowing expanded gambling in tribal casinos.

The lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.