Ruben Balderas: Tohono O'odham Nation casino breaks promise

The 2002 voter enactment of Prop 202, the 17 Tribes Initiative, was an enormous achievement for Arizona tribes. The new tribal-state gaming compacts that resulted provided tribes with a path to economic self-sufficiency while the State of Arizona achieved certainty that casinos would be limited in scope and number.

Furthermore, we agreed that casino gaming would be conducted on existing reservations and that no additional casinos would be built in the Valley beyond the seven that existed then. The limitations voters thought they were approving are now at risk because of the actions of one Tucson-area tribe, the Tohono O’odham Nation. Its plan to open a casino in Glendale violates the promises we made in good faith to Arizona voters to gain their support.

The proposed casino site encroaches on nearby neighborhoods and is across 91st Avenue from Raymond Kellis High School. A large part of the rationale limiting casino gaming to existing tribal lands was to ensure that casinos weren’t located near schools, churches and residential areas.

Tohono O’odham participated with 16 other tribes in a campaign that promised limited, regulated gaming on traditional Indian lands. Now they say that the promises tribes made never really meant anything; they were just “campaign noise” and not to be taken seriously.