Federal Bill Would Bring South Carolina Tribe’s Casino to North Carolina
Posted on: March 14, 2019, 05:56h.
Last updated on: March 14, 2019, 05:56h.
US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S. Carolina) on Wednesday dropped a bill on Capitol Hill that, if passed, would take land into trust for the Catawba Indian Tribe for the construction of a $560 million casino in North Carolina.
Graham is the kind of man we’re more accustomed to see introducing anti-gambling legislation — specifically of the kind that would prohibit regulated online gambling in the US. But this bill is — in its own way — just as controversial the senator’s flirtation with the Restoration of America’s Wire Act.
Graham is a South Carolina senator advocating for a South Carolina-based tribe to fulfill their long-cherished dream of building a casino in North Carolina. Needless to say, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which operates North Carolina’s two casinos, is hopping mad.
The Catawba is the only federally recognized tribe in South Carolina. This status was restored to the tribe in 1993, 34 years after its sovereignty was stripped under the federal government’s Indian termination policy.
Battle of Kings Mountain
The bill that restored federal recognition set aside $50 million to help the tribe acquire more land in areas deemed to be their ancestral homelands, which includes all of South Carolina, plus a handful of counties in North Carolina.
The Catawba has selected the small city of Kings Mountain — some 30 miles from Charlotte and part of the Charlotte metropolitan area — perhaps due to the tribe’s historical connection to the Battle of Kings Mountain, for which the city is named.
A key battle in the Revolutionary War, the Catawba fought on the side of Patriot militias against militias loyal to the British Crown in what has been described as the war’s “largest all-American fight.”
Ironically, the actual site of the battle was actually just south of the present town, in what is now South Carolina.
The Catawba has proposed building a “major brand name” casino — just like the Cherokee did with the Harrahs Cherokee Casino Resort — and is known to have held talks with the Seminole tribe of Florida, which owns the Hard Rock casino chain.
But the Catawba’s application to have the land for the casino taken into trust has been sitting with the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs since early 2014, with no decision forthcoming — and let’s face it, it’s a thorny one.
‘Modern Day Land Grab’
Graham’s bill seeks to bypass the department altogether and have the tribe’s land and casino approved by an act of Congress.
But within 12 hours of the bill’s introduction, the Eastern Cherokee branded it “unprecedented in US history,” and “a federal government bully tactic.”
“While the [Eastern Cherokee] tribe respects and encourages progress for other Native American communities, including South Carolina’s Catawba Indian Nation, the recent filing of a bill in the US Senate to give North Carolina land to the South Carolina tribe for an off-reservation casino is nothing more than a modern day land grab by the federal government of Cherokee aboriginal lands,” it said in an official statement.
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Last Comments ( 2 )
Build it. We will come to it.
This is an official response based on the stance of Principal Chief Richard Sneed of the Cherokee and his comments against the people of Cleveland County, NC and the Catawba Nation proposed resort, museum, casino, shops, and restaurants. _________________________________ LIES, FAKE NEWS, FALSEHOOD, AND FRAUD: What you propose, sir, expresses the rather uneducated history on your part only about the Cherokee Nation in lies, fraud, and falsehood. As a settler yourselves, you walked to these lands from Asia like all American Indians (Asians). I am part American Indian on my own DNA. The scientists and carbon 14 dating used have proven the six counties in the region first named Carolus, then renamed Carolina, and then split into two creating the North Carolina and the South Carolina then ruled by the whites, actually belong to the Catawba Nation here in the state of North Carolina. You know the facts of scientific evidence and have accepted them many years ago. This has been legally proven in court and signed by the President of the United States, in 1993, as scientifically true. It's interesting, within the outrage of your hopeless lies, that your people sided with the redcoats and British forces to oppose the formation of the United Colonies. Everything about your Nation was to inhibit, prevent, and stop the United States unequivocally. However, when it comes to braves, warriors, and real American heroes we see the Catawba Indian Nation siding with the blue coats to create America. Additional to your slanted testimony is the facts of your leaders behavior. Behavior in the world is how we monitor and watch people, especially those whom spread fake news. When your Nation initially applied for a casino you proposed and lobbied to control and have all gambling in our state of NC. You do not care about others, the Catawba, or the Lumbee. The whites (as you call us) told you NO. So then you lobbied and proposed to control all gambling West of I-95. The whites told you NO. Your final proposal was to open your casino's and control all gambling West of I-26. You see, Chief, as a Senior Chief, I have had a dozen Chiefs like you under my control in war across the continents of earth. From our Asia, across the Americas, Europa, and Arabia. We most often respectfully denote people such as you as the boy peddler of darkness, fabricated hate rhetoric, and, of course, uneducated statements. This marks the end of my public statements. Martin CJ Mongiello, MBA, CEO of the US Presidential Service Center and CFO of the American Revolutionary War Living History Center. _________________________________________