La. again helping Indians with casino idea

Guy Coates

Thursday, Sept. 5, 2002 | 9:48 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Gov. Mike Foster has asked the Interior Department for guidance on whether DeSoto Parish is a suitable home for the Jena Band of Choctaws, stymied in at least four efforts to build a casino in Mississippi and Louisiana.

The tribe's traditional home is the area that includes LaSalle, Grant and Rapides parishes where voters rejected gambling in local option elections years ago.

The tribe now wants to build a casino in Desoto Parish south of Shreveport, part of the traditional home area of the Caddo Indians, who fled to Oklahoma before the Civil War.

Foster signed a compact with the band last January which called for the tribe to give the state 15.5 percent of its net proceeds to the state from a proposed casino in Calcasieu Parish.

Once the compact became public knowledge, officials in Calcasieu and at least two members of Congress launched a campaign against the tribe buying a reservation 150 miles from its home area.

The Interior Department rejected the compact, noting the distance and the prohibition against a state levying a tax on an Indian casino. Even if the money is a gift, the federal agency considered it a tax.

Still, the federal agency said Foster had to continue negotiating in good faith with the tribe, which had been turned down in attempts to buy reservations for a casino in Mississippi.

Recently, the DeSoto Parish Police Jury voted 6-5 in favor of the tribe building a casino along U.S. 84 near Logansport -- about 90 road miles from the band's home area. The mayor of Logansport also supports the casino.

Parish officials were in Washington last week boosting the casino idea with Interior Department representatives.

The police jury asked for help from Foster, who sent a letter to the Interior Department.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, expressed Foster's frustration.

He said he was supportive of the tribe's efforts to get a reservation outside its home area to keep the Jena Band from buying one in the three-parish area where residents oppose gambling.

"I appreciate very much the band's efforts to find a local community in Louisiana which wants them, and to avoid locating in an area in which their casino is most definitely not wanted," Foster wrote.

Before final support comes from the state, however, Foster said he wants to get input from citizens in DeSoto.

Opposition is already building from a group called Concerned Christians of DeSoto Parish, which has the support of Congressman Jim McCrery, R-Shreveport.

Also opposed is Congressman David Vitter, R-Metairie, who led the fight against the Calcasieu reservation.

Patrick Martin, the attorney who handles Indian affairs for the governor, said Wednesday he met with the Concerned Christian group earlier this week.

"We explained why the governor is considering this at all, that it's a situation we feel forced into by federal law that requires us to negotiate in good faith," Martin said. "Ultimately they can open a casino whether we want them to or not."