D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
February 2012
Akela's New Deal
An Apache casino at Akela, near Deming, moves closer to reality but still is not a sure bet.
A 30-acre patch of ground at Akela, in the flat, barren landscape 20 miles east of Deming, was officially proclaimed a tribal reservation on Nov. 23 by Larry Echo Hawk, assistant secretary of the US Department of the Interior.
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The land had been held in trust by the Fort Sill Apaches of Oklahoma since they purchased it in 2002. Plans for an Indian gaming casino have been rumored off and on since then.
At a December "town hall meeting" held by the Apaches in Deming, it was clear that the casino plans have a lot of popular support locally.
"About 200 people showed up, and only two spoke out against it," says an elated Gary Meyers, manager of the Apache Homeland Café in Akela. "According to lawyers and others with experience, it was very unexpected. You never see that overwhelming support. Fifty-fifty is usually what it is."
The enthusiasm for the casino is understandable in job-hungry Luna County, with an unemployment rate in winter that hovers at about 20%.
As a commentator from Deming on the Fort Sill Apache website complained, "This place is drying up."
But many people right now are asking exactly what "reservation status" means for the tribe.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), who has opposed the casino since the tribe first made moves to create one, said in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that the proclamation was merely a "formality" and that it "clarifies the limits of federal, tribal and state jurisdiction over civil and criminal matters on tribal trust land."
(The office of Rep. Tom Udall [D-NM], who is co-vice chair of the House Native American Caucus and a member of the Committee on Indian Affairs, did not return phone calls related to this article.)
Meyers has an interpretation that is miles apart from Bingaman's. "I hear that makes all the difference," he says about the proclamation. "It's a game-changer." Promotional materials for the tribe openly refer to their "intent to build a casino and cultural center at Akela, NM." And the Deming Headlight's report on the Apaches' town hall meeting on Dec. 7 was titled, "Casino Plans Pick up Speed."
Nelda Darling of the press office of the US Department of the Interior says only that the proclamation "means they have jurisdiction over the land." She explains, "The reservation proclamation was triggered by terms of the 2007 agreement the US reached in connection with litigation in 2007 filed by the Comanche nation."
Assistant Secretary Echo Hawk has been considered conservative by some commentators when he comes to expanding tribal gaming. He says he judges gaming petitions on a "case by case basis."
On Sept. 2 he rejected the Jemez Pueblo casino plans in Anthony. On the same date he approved two tribal casino requests in California and rejected another in that state.
In 2002 the Fort Sill tribe purchased the 30 acres at Akela in trust with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. At that time the tribe's officials signed a document stating that they would not build a casino on the property.
"Governments change their minds, and that is what we did," explained tribal chairman Jeff Haozous after the tribe set up 50 electronic bingo machines in their stucco building off I-10 in early 2008. (He formerly used the name Houser, but recently changed it back to the original name.) The Fort Sill Apaches in Oklahoma already have a casino in Lawton that made $10 million annually as of 2008.
On Feb. 28, 2008, Gov. Bill Richardson sent in state police cars to block the entry to the casino after the tribe started using the machines.
In early April 2009, the Apache Homelands Café started paper bingo with 60 or so clients a night. But this, too, was closed down by the state in late September. There was little subsequent news until the reservation proclamation in November last year.
Gov. Susana Martinez and some of her staff are planning discussions with the Fort Sill Apache representatives at an undetermined time.
The negative comments at the December meeting in Deming were few, but worth consideration.
One attendee who lives in Akela questioned whether the water supply at the Akela site would be adequate for an operation of the size the tribe envisions. Rose Commodore, women's transitional home director and a former clergywoman, spoke up about the problem of gambling addiction, and the tribe responded that it would supply funds for treatment.
Steve Fox was the only attendee totally opposed to the casino. He grew up in Deming but lived in the Northwest for years, where he says he saw the effect of casinos on small towns first-hand.
Asked about his comments in a followup phone interview, Fox says, "Everyone has a positive and negative viewpoint of this. The only difference is, I've seen the other side of this, and it's not pretty. Nobody should be naïve enough to believe it will benefit the working poor.
"It's going to compete with the restaurants [in Deming]," he adds. "There will be more bankruptcies. That means they write off debt to local businesses."
Tribal Chairman Haozous says the economic impact on the Deming area will be positive, with a significant number of jobs added. "If we get approval to operate a casino there, we will continue to manage it, although most of our staff will come from New Mexico," Haozous says. "We intend to have at least 60 employees within 45 days and 300 employees in less than a year."