"I am not opposed to casinos and while I don’t think putting a casino in Twentynine Palms is a good idea for a variety of economic and sociological reasons, my letter is not about that. I’m also not going to address the millions of dollars of necessary infrastructural upgrades that Twentynine Palms taxpayers will have to pay for to facilitate this project (the widening of Sullivan and Hatch, for instance).

What I do want to talk about is the Nuwu tribe’s continued insistence that they are stewards of the land. In light of their representative’s dismissive response to questions about the tribe’s non-adherence to the Endangered Species Act (Desert Trail, “Casino groundbreaking nears,” May 22), it is insulting for them to keep insisting their casino and trailer park project is about anything other than a lot of cold, hard cash for a tribe of 12 members, already the owners of one casino.

Like many other folks I’ve talked to, who only accept this badly located project because we are told there’s no alternative, I object to its placement — on 160 pristine acres bordering our national park, that could as a bonus end up draining the Oasis of Mara dry."

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Nicole Panter Tribe isn’t acting as steward of land (The Hi-Desert Star 5/28)