A Seattle-based federal judge has ruled in favor of the Native Village of Eklutna in lawsuit over the tribe’s right to operate a new casino near Anchorage, but the decision may not mark the end of the legal fight.
On July 2 US District Court Judge James L. Robart upheld Eklutna’s federal recognition, rejecting claims from local residents that the tribe lacked the authority to run its Chin’an Gaming Hall.
The casino, which opened in January in a trailer located in a muddy lot, has drawn complaints from nearby Birchwood residents about traffic, noise, and land use. The plaintiffs argued that Eklutna has no legal standing to operate the facility.
In his ruling, Robart cited a 1993 listing by the US Department of the Interior affirming Eklutna’s recognition as a tribe, along with a 1994 Congressional acknowledgment of the department’s authority to determine tribal status. With that recognition affirmed, the tribe may conduct Class II gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
The decision means the Chin’an Gaming Hall may continue to operate for now. Attorney Don Mitchell, representing the plaintiffs, filed a motion for reconsideration. If that motion is denied, he indicated that the residents may appeal the ruling.
The case is one of two legal challenges facing Eklutna’s gaming operation.
In a separate lawsuit, the State of Alaska is suing the US Department of the Interior and the Native Village of Eklutna, seeking to overturn a 2024 legal opinion that recognized tribal jurisdiction over Native allotments, a decision that underpins the tribe’s ability to operate the casino.
On April 9, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor filed for an injunction to shut down the gaming hall, citing a 2021 federal court ruling that denied Eklutna jurisdiction over the same parcel of land.
That broader case remains unresolved. If the state prevails, it could force the closure of the Chin’an Gaming Hall, which many neighbors in the Birchwood-Eagle River area oppose.
It is interesting to note that gambling casinos play a key role in laundering drug money in Vancouver, Canada. The casino’s absorb huge amounts of cash, converting it into bank accounts that can be transferred to and among the cartels and Triad gangs. Is the Eklutna casino is as wildly profitable as some suggest? Why?
To learn more, consider reading Sam Cooper, Willful Blindness. Or his interview with Ed Augustino: ‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr4QX09hPy4
Other sources include: ‘https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/justice/anti-money-laundering/reports.
Canada increased regulation of the gambling industry. But Alaska has no authority over activities on tribal lands.
Interesting times.
First you complain about Native corporations not taking care of their own. When they start up revenue generating activities you complain about that. You cannot have it both ways!
You realize, of course, that the two are not mutually exclusive.
A casino in a trailer, classy! I guess we could also call it the “Trouble Wide.”
Both the Native Village of Eklutna, and Eklutna Corporation, have been bad actors and bad neighbors in the Chugiak, Birchwood and Eagle River area for a number of years now, pushing their way around and bullying everyone in the area with developments that are only in THEIR best interests (and even that is debatable), while very much being opposed to the best interests of the community in general.
In my house, the name “Eklutna” has become a curse word.
It’s no real surprise here. They waited for a leftist woman to be in charge of the BLM and pushed through an illegal permit. Sadly the left has taken over the Anchorage administration too so they seem to think the world need to bow to all things native. So let’s see if they don’t pay taxes thwn they don’t get any benefits from local police or fire either, right. What a joke. Will these entitlements ever end or will we simply go broke trying to appease these unpleaseable people’s.
Great. Another opportunity to create another class of victims through gambling addition. Cue the bleeding hearts in the assembly and legislature who will want to pour millions into ‘programs’ to cure the ills of gambling.
Another nitwit liberal judge.
“ANCSA extinguished all the Indian reservations in Alaska, with the exception of Metlakatla. Tribes that had their reservations extinguished had the option of keeping their former reservation land, both surface and subsurface ownership. If they chose that option they did not receive a cash settlement and do not participate as shareholders in the regional corporations.”
“It is an ANCSA Corporation, organized under and bound by the Alaska Corporations Code and the provisions of ANCSA.” From Eklutna Inc.
Wally Hickel used to say it best, “Alaska is one land, one people.”
If the people of Eklutna really believe that a casino is going to help the neighborhood, why don’t they put it in their own, instead of inconveniencing and endangering the rest of us?
Groan! Another out of state individual with zero understanding of the different rules governing tribes up here.
Well if this stands (and I hope they appeal) I want the Eklutna tribe/corp. to return all the funds they got from ANCSA, as well as the land they received (which would most likely include that allotment) since they have decided to go with the Bureau of Indian affairs. In other words if they join Metlakatla then they should automatically forfeit all the ANCSA gains.