Oklahoma-based tribes to seek gambling rights in Pa.

Maryclaire Dale

Tuesday, May 20, 2003 | 9:21 a.m.

Two Indian tribes -- claiming ancestral ties to land now occupied by a Crayola crayon factory and private homes -- plan to pursue gambling rights in Pennsylvania.

The Delaware Indian tribes, who say they were forced out of land just north of Easton in 1802, have about 12,000 members in Oklahoma but none in Pennsylvania, officials said.

"I see gaming as a way to provide services to my people," said Chief Joe Brooks of the Delaware Tribe of Indians of Bartlesville, Okla.

His group, along with members of the Delaware Nation of Anadarko, Okla., held a press conference last week in Harrisburg to announce their plans.

They do not currently run any gambling operations other than bingo, a spokesman said.

Gov. Ed Rendell, who hopes to legalize slot machines at racetracks to fund his education plan and reduce local taxes, vowed to oppose any plan to introduce Indian gambling in the state.

"It does not produce the same type of revenue as our own slot machines would, and, two, we lose a lose a great deal of control," Rendell said in a conference call Wednesday.

The tribes plan to stake a claim to a 315-acre parcel of land in Northampton County, the site of the headquarters of Binney & Smith, Crayola's parent company, as well as other businesses and about 25 private homes.

The land was granted to a Delaware chief named Tatamy and never legally transferred, the tribes said.

They may also pursue claims to other state land they believe to be rightfully theirs, including some in Philadelphia, they said.

If a federal court approves of their claim, they would use the land -- or property obtained in a land swap -- as their basis for establishing their right to pursue casinos, slot machines or other types of gambling in the Keystone State.

"They're here because they recognize that Pennsylvania is just starting the gaming debate," said tribe spokesman Kevin Feeley, a one-time Rendell spokesman. "They want folks to understand that they deserve a place at the table."

The tribes have not decided what form of gambling they would pursue, Feeley said.

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 allows tribes to negotiate compacts with states to conduct gambling. More than 200 tribes together took in $12.7 billion in revenue in 2001.

Although the money is not taxed, a few states have negotiated compacts with tribes that provide the states with as much as $100 million each in annual revenue.

Pennsylvania does not currently have any Indian gambling ventures, but the governor's office has received ancestral claims from several tribes, Rendell said.

Binney & Smith, which built its world headquarters on the land in the late 1970s, was surprised by the claim, a spokesman said.

"This is the first that we have heard of it," said spokesman Eric Zebley, who said the company hopes to get more information about the tribes' claim.

"I can say, however, that the property was purchased legitimately by Binney & Smith, and that we own it," he said.

Michael Geer, a board member of Pennsylvanians Against Gambling Expansion, noted that a state law legalizing the operation of slot machines would give the tribes the impetus to pursue gambling in other parts of the state besides the horse racing tracks.

"Once (legislators) open the door, these folks are coming in and laying claims to land all over the state" for gambling, Geer said.