A proposed $600 million casino in the heart of California wine country has caused a battle between two tribes in the Golden State. The Koi Nation hopes to build the casino resort on its ancestral homeland about an hour north of San Francisco.
However the case is a bit murkier. The tribe was at one point removed from its traditional lands in Lake County in the mid-1800s and later given uninhabitable land, according to the Washington Post. The federal government eventually removed the tribe’s federal recognition, leaving the Koi without a reservation. The tribe is now awaiting federal approval to go through with the casino.
“It is our time to control our own destiny, our own land and our rights as a federally recognized tribe,” Koi Vice Chair Dino Beltran told the Post.
That has come with some controversy. The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria also claims the land and argues that the Koi’s efforts amount to an “illegal land grab.” The dispute comes after the Biden administration relaxed rules governing the tribes’ ability to open gaming operations.
Some tribes that already have gaming establishments are concerned that additional casinos would cut into their revenue. The Graton Rancheria own and operate a casino just about 20 minutes from the proposed new casino and is opposed to the Koi project.
“They have no business in our area,” Graton Rancheria chairman Greg Sarris said. “You can’t start having tribes move into other tribes’ territories.”
The Interior Department is now left in the predicament of determining which lands originally belonged to which tribes. Some tribes like the Koi are able to petition for the ability to use land that was their traditional homelands that may have been taken away and left them without a reservation. This would give these groups a potential revenue stream.
“We’d like to provide our tribe with education, employment, health care and financial independence,” Beltran said. “That’s a right that every other tribe that was in this position once had, so we just want the same opportunities.”
*Casino rendering by Koi Nation Sonoma