WALKER SAYS 'NO' TO MENOMINEE TRIBE'S KENOSHA CASINO

The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reported on Friday, January 23 that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has denied the request of the Menominee Tribe to open an off-reservation casino in Kenosha. The project had been endorsed by Kenosha County but faced strong opposition from the Potawatomi and Ho-Chunk Tribes, who believed a Kenosha casino would harm their existing casino operations.

The Menominee Tribe has been seeking approval for a Kenosha casino for more than a decade. In 2005, former Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle signed a compact with the Potawatomi Tribe requiring that the tribe be reimbursed for any loss of business stemming from approval of the Kenosha casino proposal. Governor Walker cited this requirement as one of the major reasons for his decision to deny the Menominee Tribe's request.

State officials expressed the fear that state taxpayers might be on the hook for that reimbursement, even though the Menonimee Tribe had pledged a $200 million bond to cover any losses incurred by the competing tribes.

Federal law requires that proposals for off-reservation casinos be approved by the Department of Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs as well as by the Governor in the affected state. Governors have virtual veto power over the opening of any proposed off-reservation tribal casino.

MIGA Executive Director John McCarthy said that MIGA tribes adopted a resolution opposing any expansion of gaming, including off-reservation casinos, in 1992 and have maintained that position ever since.

TRIBAL LEADERS ATTEND WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE

Minnesota tribal leaders join hundreds of their counterparts from across the nation today at the 6th annual White House Tribal Nations Conference hosted by President Barack Obama. Tribal officials will advise the President and several Cabinet members on the most pressing challenges facing their communities, including rampant unemployment, high violent crime rates, and failing schools.

President Obama initiated the annual meetings as a way to improve the sometimes rocky relationship that has historically existed between tribes and the federal government. Mr. Obama was only the fourth president in U.S. history to visit an Indian reservation when he traveled to the Standing Rock Reservation earlier this year.

Each of the 566 federally recognized tribes was invited to send a representative to the conference, which will include an address by President Obama as well as listening sessions with officials from various federal government agencies and departments, and a reception at the National Museum of the American Indian.

As part of the two-day event, tribal leaders were invited to attend the Capitol Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at 5 pm yesterday. This year's Capitol Christmas tree comes from the Chippewa National Forest in Minnesota, and was accompanied to Washington, D.C. by students from the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.

MILLE LACS BAND ACQUIRES OKLAHOMA CITY HOTEL

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, which announced the purchase of two St. Paul hotels over the past year as part of its economic diversification strategy, has acquired a third hotel property, this one an Embassy Suites in Oklahoma City. The Band issued the following news release on the acquisition:

Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures (MLCV) announced today that it has closed the purchase of the 236 room Embassy Suites Oklahoma City hotel, located at 1815 South Meridian, Oklahoma City, OK 73108. The purchase represents a strategic expansion into a growing market for the company.

"We are excited to enter the Oklahoma City market with one of the strongest performing hospitality assets,” said Joseph Nayquonabe, CEO of Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures. “The quality of the suites and the proximity to key attractions around the city position this hotel for exceptional performance.”

Located only six miles from downtown and less than four miles from Will Rogers World Airport, the recently renovated hotel boasts an atrium, 9,968 square feet of meeting space, a business center, fitness room, indoor heated pool and gift shop.

Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures will grant Greenwood Hospitality Group – a Denver based hospitality management firm – an agreement to manage the property.

“We are very excited to enter into a partnership with Greenwood Hospitality,” Nayquonabe continued. “This partnership represents a unique opportunity to combine our expertise and work together to maximize the value of this strong asset.”

In 2013, Melanie Benjamin, chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, issued a directive to diversify the Band’s corporate holdings and strengthen the tribal economy.

Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures began its long-term strategy to diversify the Mille Lacs Band’s investments beyond gaming with the purchase of the Crowne Plaza St. Paul Riverfront hotel and the DoubleTree by Hilton in St. Paul, Minn. Since then, MLCV has further diversified by opening Sweetgrass Media, a commercial print shop and acquiring 2020 Brand Solutions. It is in the process of several other planned investments, including the rebuild of Eddy’s Resort on Lake Mille Lacs and the development of a commercial laundry facility and a medical office building in Hinckley, Minn.

“Economic diversification is critical to building a strong future for the Mille Lacs Band and I am pleased to see our corporate arm, Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures, acquiring assets that will benefit Band members for many generations to come,” said Benjamin.

This hospitality acquisition is the second step in a nationwide strategy to acquire hospitality assets in major markets.

“We remain confident in our decision to enter the hospitality space,” said Jeff Castillo, director of investments and economic development for MLCV. “Market fundamentals remain strong, demand seems to have fully recovered and we are anticipating record occupancy levels in both urban and airport locations.”

Nayquonabe said MLCV is continually analyzing deals in search of opportunities that meet its stringent investment criteria and will position the company for long-term success. “We’re very pleased to add the Embassy Suites Oklahoma City to our growing portfolio and we look forward to discovering our next great opportunity.”

About Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures
Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures manages all the Mille Lacs Band’s businesses, including Grand Casino Mille Lacs, Grand Casino Hinckley, the Crowne Plaza Riverfront Hotel and the DoubleTree Hilton in St. Paul, Minn., 2020 Brand Solutions, Embassy Suites Oklahoma City and other Band-owned businesses such as a cinema, a grocery store, gas/convenience stores, a golf course, wastewater treatment plant and a print shop. It also oversees certain amount of the Band’s investments and considers new business opportunities to provide economic support for the Band’s future. Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures has over 3,500 employees and its board of directors is comprised of five members, who guide the business and investment decisions for the Band.

CALIFORNIA MOVES TO STOP TRIBE'S ONLINE BINGO

A gaming website is reporting that the Attorney General for the State of California has filed a federal lawsuit to stop the online bingo program recently launched by the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel. The online source, CaliforniaOnlinePoker.com, said the lawsuit was filed on November 18, and claims that the tribe's action in conducting online bingo violates state and federal law, as well as its compact with the state because the gaming is offered to bettors not located on tribal land.

Documents filed in the lawsuit begin with this statement of the case:

This action seeks appropriate injunctive relief to prevent unlawful Internet gambling; Defendant Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel, also known as Santa Ysabel Band of Diegueno Mission Indians (Tribe), has begun to offer a facsimile of bingo over the Internet to bettors, who are not located on the Tribe’s Indian lands. In addition to violating state and federal law, the Tribe’s conduct materially breaches the tribal-state class III gaming compact (Compact) between the Tribe. and the State. 

According to the report, the state also asserts in the lawsuit that state officials attempted without success to meet with tribal officials to discuss their online gaming plans. In a written response to the state's request, the tribe advised that it had no plans to offer online bingo, but intended to offer online poker only.

The tribe has previously stated that it is exercising its sovereign right under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) to regulate and conduct Class II gaming from the tribe's reservation.

DOES AMERICA HAVE A CASINO SATURATION PROBLEM?

A November 18 article in The New Yorker suggests that the huge expansion of state-sponsored casinos in recent years may have saturated the gaming market and left many states scrambling to cover budget holes created by declining casino revenues.

The article, by writer John Wolfson, points to the explosion of state-authorized casinos and racinos in recent years. He writes, "Eager for new jobs and new revenues that don’t require raising taxes, states from coast to coast have turned to gambling: in 1978, only Nevada and New Jersey had commercial casinos; today, twenty-four states do."

Wolfson says market saturation is a serious problem for states that have grown to depend on gambling revenues. "This isn't an entirely free-market enterprise, and the casino operators aren't the only ones bearing the risk," he notes. "Each state that has licensed a commercial casino has become a partner in that business...The trouble starts when they become dependent on gambling revenues to pay their bills."

A case in point is Delaware, Wolfson explains. "In Delaware, gambling taxes have accounted for eight per cent of the state budget. That left the state vulnerable when the owners of its three aging racetrack casinos began demanding financial concesssions in order to preserve jobs. The legislature voted to split eight million dollars among the casinos. This year, the operators came back, seeking more money and a new deal." The state legislature voted to give the casinos $10 million this year, $11 million in 2015, and $12 million in 2016.

MIGA Executive Director John McCarthy said the New Yorker article reinforces the experience of Minnesota's tribal casinos. "We've been saying for several years that the Minnesota gaming market is pretty well saturated," he said. "Casino revenues have been level after slight declines during the recession. We're not seeing any meaningful expansion of casino facilities; most tribes have focused on adding or expanding ancillary facilities such as hotels, golf courses and other visitor attractions."

TRIBAL COMPANY SIGNS LANDMARK ENERGY DEAL WITH GSA

The Department of Energy's Office of Indian Energy Policy (OIEP) is reporting that a tribally owned energy company has signed a landmark wind energy deal to provide 140 megawatts of wind power to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). The energy will come from a wind farm in Northern Illinois.

In a blog posted on the OIEP website, Acting Director Pilar Thomas wrote that "the historic energy deal marked the largest wind energy purchase from a single source in federal contracting history.  It will supply GSA with all the clean energy it needs to meet the Obama Administration's 20 percent by 2020 goal for federal agencies."

MG2 Tribal Energy, a joint venture between the Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians and commercial wind developer Geronimo Energy, is the first tribal entity to sign a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the federal government. The energy company is one of several enterprises the Band has created over the past 18 months as part of a comprehensive economic development initiative.

Mesa Grande is a non-gaming tribe located northeast of San Diego, CA. In addition to MG2 Tribal Energy, the Band has launched a call center, a training and events production company, and a waste management firm.

Tribal Chairman Mark Romero said the GSA contract represents an important step forward in the history of the Mesa Grande Band. "Few other economic development opportunities enable us to remain so true to our cultural and spiritual values. This contract is entirely consistent with our historic concern for Mother Earth and the continued availability of clean water, land and air for future generations."

BOIS FORTE HOSTS SUMMIT ON CRISIS FACING INDIAN CHILDREN

A September 25 summit meeting at Fortune Bay Resort Casino in Tower brought tribal, county and state officials together to collaborate on ways to address the crisis facing Indian children in Minnesota, according to Bois Forte Chairman Kevin Leecy.

Leecy said the crisis is showing up in public health statistics that paint an appalling picture. In a news release announcing the summit, Leecy reported that Minnesota's Indian babies are twice as likely as non-Indian babies to die before their first birthday. They are four times more likely to live in poverty than the state's white children. A full 53 percent of Native children are living below poverty.

While only about 3 percent of infants born in the state are Native, American Indian newborns account for 28 percent of those born addicted to drugs. Experts agreed that the recent spike in opioid abuse statewide is partly to blame for these numbers, but they say the situation in Indian country has been dire for years.

Tribal representatives expressed the hope that a Task Force on the Protection of Children recently appointed by Governor Dayton would include Native representatives to help address the serious health disparities that continue to exist between American Indian and non-Indian children statewide.

"Taken as a whole, the situation of Indian children has reached crisis proportions, and that means the future of all Indian Country is in peril," concluded Chairman Leecy.

Listen to the MN Native News report on the story here.