On Thursday, July 3, 2014, the U.S. Department of the Interior reaffirmed its decision that the Tohono O’odham Nation’s West Valley property lies within unincorporated Maricopa County at 95th and Northern avenues. The Nation wants to build another casino.
The finding a key requirement for taking the land into trust under the Gila Bend Indian Reservation Lands Replacement Act, and that therefore DOI must take the land in trust.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had requested that DOI review its ruling on whether the Nation’s property was located in an unincorporated county island. After a review, DOI decided in favor of the Nation.
The Nation says that the action by DOI represents a major step forward in its “quest to obtain reservation land to replace its Gila Bend reservation.”
The Nation claims that the casino and resort will generate more than 3,000 new, permanent jobs and more than $300 million in annual economic impact.
Tribes and legislators have worked to block the Tohono O’odham plan and proposed H.R. 1410; federal legislation that would block the Nation’s latest casino project.
Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris, Jr. said the Department of the Interior “allows the Nation to move another step closer to benefiting from the United States’ promise to the Nation that we would be able to replace our destroyed reservation lands. The Nation is eager to move forward to use our replacement land to create thousands of new jobs in the West Valley.”
The Tohono O’odham Nation is a federally-recognized Indian tribe, with existing reservation lands in Maricopa County, Pinal County, and Pima County, Arizona.