Colo. (Republican) Governor Disputes Tribes' Land Claim

[Khephra]

DENVER -- Two Oklahoma Indian tribes that are offering to drop their claim to 27 million acres in Colorado in exchange for approval to build a casino near Denver don't have a valid claim to those lands, Gov. Bill Owens said Wednesday.

Owens, at a staff briefing for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., said Interior Department lawyers and the state attorney general determined that the Cheyenne and Arapaho claim, which covers much of the northeastern corner of Colorado including Denver and Colorado Springs, was resolved 40 years ago.

The $300 million casino complex and cultural center would employ 10,000 people and generate $1 billion in state tax revenue over 10 years, said Steve Hillard, chief executive of Council Tree Communications of Golden, which intends to finance the project.

In a telephone interview from Washington, Hillard said the settlements Owens mentioned did not cover all the tribes' claims. He said the tribes would like the state's cooperation but would pursue the project through the federal government and courts if necessary.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-indian-casino,0,4467314.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

[xchrom]

1. yes -- i suspect the gov is going to get a rude awakening

these treaties are never settled for the indians exactly the way folks like the governor think they are: i'm sure there's a bomb waiting to go off here.

[telamachus]

2. I thought that you were

inadvertently suggesting terrorism..

"I'm sure there's a bomb waiting to go off here."

Some issues take a long time to solve and sometimes the wounds never heal...