It must be nice to have two U.S. senators at your beck and call. That’s the case for tribal opponents of the Tohono O’odham Nation casino proposal. Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) are introducing a 
bill that would make it illegal for a tribe (read: Tohono O’odham) to have a casino on land not contiguous with a pre-existing reservation. You might expect to ask what the tribe is expected to do with the once-arable land that was literally wiped out by Painted Rock Dam on a regular basis. In 1986, Congress allowed the Tohono O’odham to sell the ruined 9,800 acres and seek land elsewhere.
“Elsewhere” turned out to be a chunk of acreage that juts into Glendale. Other tribes didn’t see it coming because the Tohono O’odham used a front — Rainier Resources — to compile the acreage back in 2003. Flash forward t0 2009 and the tribe dropped a bombshell on Glendale, announcing its intent to build a casino on the Rainier-acquired land. According the Bureau of Indian Affairs, it met the criteria for reservation status, potentially clearing the path to a casino. In July 2010, the land officially became part of the Tohono O’odham Nation and casino-eligible.
Gov. Jan Brewer (R) tried to play Indian-giver, signing a bill that would permit Glendale to take the land from the tribe. She was, predictably, sued and lost. Meanwhile, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa and Gila River Indian Community were pursuing their own lawsuits, contending that Arizona casinos were “implicitly” capped in the 2002 tribal compact with the state. They lost. The litigation and the annexation case now languish in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
While everybody waits on the courts, Glendale is negotiating with the tribe over the potential infrastructure needs of the casino, which is in the vicinity of Jobing.com Arena and University of Phoenix Stadium. The McCain/Flake bill is a companion to one that Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) has been pushing in the House, with success only to see it die in the Senate. The Glendale City Council having shifted its support to the Tohono O’odham, it’s not clear whose interests are being served by McCain and Flake … but Arizona has plenty of other tribal casinos and they all know how to write out a campaign contribution.
