Opinion: North Fork Rancheria gaming deal deserves 'yes' vote

It may not surprise you that other tribes heartily oppose the ratification. Locally, some tribes aren’t interested in having North Folk come in and provide competition that will cut into their profits. One tribe in particular, the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians, who own a resort and casino not too far from the North Fork site, was very vocal in its opposition throughout the federal approval process. Interestingly, the Picayune Rancheria invested in a major expansion of its casino in the latter part of the last decade.

Which highlights a fundamental point — North Forks did everything the right way. A pathway was laid out for tribes such a North Folk to follow — a very difficult and time-consuming path. So difficult, in fact, that it will make situations such as this one very rare, I suspect. I think there was a very reasonable expectation on the part of the North Folk Tribe that if they did go through this process to have this property designated as tribal land, they would be able to negotiate a compact just like every other tribe has done.

The appropriate place to argue against designation of that land as tribal land was in the federal process, and tribes (notably the Picayune) did exactly that, but did not succeed. Now this smacks of sour grapes because the North Folk property, in fact, enjoys the very same status as every other tribal land. North Folk just followed the process as it was laid out before them.

Whether you are more compelled with the argument that stopping other gaming tribes from manipulation of the ballot process system to use government to stifle competition — or whether you think that after following the formal process that was outlined for North Forks, which took over a decade, they have done things the right way — I urge you to ratify the compact, and vote "yes" on Prop. 48.