Brenda Meade, above, believes the accusation of \u201creservation shopping\u201d creates a \u201cbaseless precedent for political attacks\u201d against future tribes seeking economic self-sufficiency. (Image: ICT News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIn an op-ed for Oregon Live<\/em> this week, Coquille tribal chair Brenda Meade accused fellow tribal leaders of \u201cthrowing tribal sovereignty under the bus\u201d in order to retain their regional gaming monopolies.<\/p>\nIn March of this year Meade the Karuk, Cow Creek, Elk Valley, and Tolowa Dee-ni\u2019 tribes\u2014all based in Oregon and Northern California — wrote to Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland.<\/p>\n
They asked her to torpedo the Coquille\u2019s request to have land earmarked for the casino taken into trust. In their letter, they warned of \u201cdevastating economic consequences\u201d for their own gaming operations if the project were to go ahead.<\/p>\n
\u2018Reservation Shopping\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe Coquille Tribe, which owns the Mill Casino on its reservation in Coos Bay, has harbored plans for a modest gaming venue in Medford since 2011. The tribe first submitted its application to the DOI\u2019s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 2013.<\/p>\n
In 2020, the BIA under the Trump administration denied the application. But that decision was reversed by the Biden administration a year later on the grounds that it had been issued before an environmental review process was completed. The Coquille are still sweating on a final BIA decision.<\/p>\n
\n
In her op-ed, Meade was incensed by the four tribes\u2019 insinuation that the Coquille were \u201creservation shopping.\u201d The implication was that the Coquille had sought land far from their original reservation that would give them the best bang for their buck when they built a casino.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Meade said this fundamentally misunderstood the nature of tribal reservations, and she reinforced the Coquille\u2019s ancestral ties to the region.<\/p>\n
The tribe was recognized in 1989 by the Coquille Restoration Act, which did not restore a contiguous area of land to the Coquille. Instead, it identified a specific area where land could be taken into trust to become part of the reservation.<\/p>\n
This included Coos County, where the tribe has its existing reservation, as well as Medford\u2019s Jackson County, and others. These counties were not chosen arbitrarily, Meade said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongress studied where our people lived, traded and worked, both historically and during termination. It learned that its own policies had caused us to disperse across the landscape,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n