Feds still back Cowlitz reservation, casino
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — Attorneys for the federal government have reaffirmed the right of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe to establish a reservation in Clark County and build a casino.
The Columbian reports the federal government had to decide by Friday whether it would defend itself in federal court, or rescind a 2010 Bureau of Indian Affairs decision to allow the Cowlitz to take 152 acres near La Center into trust. It chose to proceed in court.
The tribe applied in 2002 to establish the reservation with the goal of building a $510 million casino-hotel complex. The Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the application in 2010.
Several opponents appealed the decision, including Clark County, the city of Vancouver, property owners, the operators of four La Center cardrooms, and a citizens' group. They challenged the tribe's ties to the parcel west of the Interstate 5 interchange in La Center.
"They challenged the tribe's ties to the parcel....." Didn't they originally own all of it before they were sent away from their homeland?
Seems like a good reason for Oregonians to approve Measures 82 and 83.
Who came to America first? Indians were there first before anyone else in the world. Indians have the right to do whatever they want to build, hunt whales, no limit fishing, etc. Everyone MUST respect what they want to do in America you idiots Christoper Columbus' people.
 @Michael R. Newton By all means donate all your property to those that were here first, if you can find them, and move back to Europe.
 @Michael R. Newton I agree with you to a point.  Indeed they laid claim to this land well before white man appeared on the scene.  The problem I have is that today native people in no way live as their ancestors did.  Most have been absorbed into the melting pot that is this country.  They live next door to us and are our employees, coworkers and bosses.  They essentially live the same lives as you and I.  They enjoy all the befits and perks of being a united states citizen and living in a modern world.  They drive cars, wear gortex clothing, live in well built homes, and eat from a shelf as opposed to off the land.  Their forefathers lived a much harder and less forgiving life.  They had to move often to follow fish and game and if they didn't hunt or fish successfully they starved.  So yes, I do not think that someone who's only connection to those people of long ago is by name only should have the right to hunt and fish with no restriction.  The only way I would remotely agree to your statement is if they want were to hunt and fish the exact same way their ancestors did.  Homemade wooden longbows and wooden arrows, handmade nets and dugout canoes.  If you want to stand firm on treaty rights then we must look at the whole treaty.  So should we collect all the descendants of the tribes and force them back onto the reservation as the treaties required?  Should we put borders up around them and require passports to enter or leave?  I guess my point is, they want all the privileges of today and yesterday at the same time and that just won't work.  They want their Iphone and their casino too.  I'm all for the casino, but there must be concession made, last time I checked the cowlitz tribe didn't run casinos a couple hundred years ago.
Firestarter74,
Very good comment! All you say is so true also. Thank you!
A couple of hundred years ago, the tribe would just have wiped out the opposition!