The Coquille Tribe’s aspirations to build a casino in Medford, Oregon, have taken a significant step forward after the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) issued a final environmental impact statement (FEIS) supporting the plan.
This development has raised concerns among opponents, who fear the outgoing Biden administration might push the project through during the lame-duck session.
The BIA had previously rejected the land-in-trust application for the casino under the Trump administration in 2020. However, the Biden administration reversed that decision a year later, citing that it was made before the environmental review process was completed.
The BIA’s next step is to initiate a 30-day public comment period. Following this, the agency will produce a final record of decision (ROD) on whether to place the land in trust for the Coquille Tribe. Typically, the ROD affirms the EIS, though not always.
The Coquille Tribe, which owns the Mill Casino on its reservation in Coos Bay, has been planning a modest gaming venue in Medford on the site of a former bowling alley since 2011. The tribe first applied to the BIA in 2013.
Opponents accuse the tribe of “reservation shopping” and argue that approving urban, off-reservation tribal gaming contradicts the intention of the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), which codified tribal gaming rights.
The plan faces opposition from numerous tribes in Oregon and California, US Congress members from both states, and Oregon’s Democratic Governor Tina Kotek.
In March, the Karuk, Cow Creek, Elk Valley, and Tolowa Dee-ni’ tribes—all based in Oregon and Northern California—wrote to Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland to express their resistance to the plan.
The Coquille Tribe claims ancestral ties to the area, despite Medford being 168 miles and a three-hour drive from its base in Coos Bay. Opposing tribes argue that this claim is false and based on “bad data.”
“The Coquille Tribe has no historical presence in the watershed of the Rogue River and cannot document any village or sustained use of the region until the 1950s when a member of the tribe, later serving on the tribal council, became a college student in Ashland and subsequently settled in the area,” states the “Keep Your Promise to the Tribes” campaign website.
Coquille Tribe Chair Brenda Meade has said this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of tribal reservations, adding that the term “reservation shopping” sets a dangerous precedent for political attacks against other tribes seeking economic self-determination.
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 specific areas where land could be taken into trust to become part of the reservation, Meade explained in a recent op-ed for Oregon Live. This included Coos County, as well as Medford’s Jackson County, and others.
“Congress 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,” Meade said.
In a statement on Friday, Cow Creek Umpqua Tribal Chair Carla Keene said her tribe’s opposition to the trust-land application has been repeatedly “deflected or ignored” by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
Haaland has not treated the Cow Creek and others “with respect as sovereign nations, but as a nuisance,” she added.
“Today, my heart feels what our ancestors felt years ago with the stealing of our lands,” Keene said in a statement. “We have continually reached out and tried to work with the government, and we’ve been a sister tribe to others, but the government continues to take from our tribe and give it away.”
