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.
The irony of all this is White Man is accused of ruining native culture, but then in the same breath, natives take up the most unhealthy of White Man culture. Drinking and gambling. Guess they can only blame themselves for any pending downfall of their culture.
Humans sure are funny creatures.
White man?
You mean Americans?
Who are White man ??
You used the term natives, why not brown man ? Are you only racist towards white people?
Yes, we should definitely allow Alaska Native corporations to pimp out hookers and sell heroin, also. To “take care of their own”, you know.
There is no law or authority allowing anyone in Alaska to “pimp out hookers and sell heroin.” It does not contribute to the doscourse to talk such nonsense.
Actually we can.
Following ANSCA each corporation received funds and land to settle aboriginal land claims. The corporation model was set up to give native tribes the opportunity to monetize their natural resources etc. Some did really well, others not so much. That is really their problem.
If memory serves gambling was not a viable option as the jurisdiction over all remained with the state, where gambling is strictly controlled. Any native group, who took a settlement, has no right to claim reservation status, regardless if they are recognized as a tribe or not.
So Eklutna wants their cake and eat it too. They want that piece of property from the settlement and then declare it “federal Indian country” to avoid state jurisdiction, upending decades of precedence and settled law. In other words laws for thee, but not for me….
If we have a problem with this casino, it is certainly not with the Indians running it. The article says, “Seattle-based US District Court Judge James L. Robart” determined Eklutna to be a tribe allowed to run a gambling casino. How can we blame the indians for judge Robart’s decision? Activist judges are the problem.
Uh, you do know that Alaska Native Corps reported earnings in excess if $10.5 Billion last year – ASRC reported $4 billion themselves.
So please don’t act like the native corps will.all of a sudden start taking care of their people because they are allowed to have a seedy, shifty casino in Eagle River.
A casino in a trailer, classy! I guess we could also call it the “Trouble Wide.”
It’s a brilliant move. They don’t want to give regulators the impression they are making big money. Shrewd.
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?
Because their neighborhood is a shXXhole neighborhood.
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.
Well said, A taxpayer!
Obviously, the leaders of the Eklutna natives are selfish hypocrites, who like most Alaska natives want the best of both worlds. Well, legally and morally, they cannot have their cake and eat it, too. If they want to claim “sovereignty”, then they MUST give up all the benefits, and lands, that they have accrued under ANCSA.
Jefferson, your comment is so wrong. Eklutna natives can claim sovereignty without giving anything up. They can have their cake and eat it too. They can have anything and everthing they want if a judge decides to give it to them. Activist judges have the power. If anyone wants to appeal they face enormous cost and time commitments. Justice doesn’t come cheap in the USA.
More Native corruption.
Everyone knows it.
Aaron Leggett and his family didn’t now they were “Indian” until high school.
Really embarrassing that they learned their “culture” in college courses.
We have far better ones here in town…
Casinos came from the Whiteman, you can’t get a part of the action so you are opposed to it? I imagine they have learned from the whiteman, to be ruthless and care for only their selfs. Let those people prosper.
“ In a trailer, located in a muddy lot” is pretty misleading.
The temporary location is in a modular structure, like many other Alaskan businesses, schools, post offices etc.
The inside looks like a section in any other casino .
I’ve enjoyed going there with my elderly mother, always feel safe and each time I’ve visited I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to the support of any number of community organizations.
Do I have a tag or is the opposition group hiring