"Your recent article titled “Change Boosts Jemez Casino” misses the mark by miles – about 300 miles, to be exact.

The Obama administration withdrew a Bush era policy that said what everyone already knows and what federal law already recognizes – it makes no sense to allow tribes to build casinos hundreds of miles from their existing reservations. The Obama administration thinks that existing federal law makes this clear without the need for a guidance memo.

One fact that was not in the article was Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior Larry Echo Hawk’s statement to the Associated Press on June 15. Echo Hawk said people should not misread the new regulations as a sign the administration has become more lax when it comes to reviewing applications.

“You might say it’s a relatively steep hill to climb,” he said. “It says in the regulations the farther you go from the reservation, the greater the scrutiny is.

“I don’t think anyone should be looking at this as if now we’ve opened the gates and we’re going to start approving casinos at great distances.”"

Get the Story:
Non-Indian racetrack lobbyist Scott Scanland: Jemez Casino No Closer to Reality (The Albuquerque Journal 7/1)

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