ARE THE INDIANS COMING?

by Pam North

Focus is currently on Central City as the possible future location of
a major Indian combination casino/5-star restaurant/cultural and
travel center.  Such a tourist attraction might give the struggling
mountain town's sagging gaming economy a much-needed boost, and
apparently its city officials are amenable to the idea.

Two Oklahoma-based Indian tribes - the Arapaho and the Cheyenne - have
stated that they have a claim to their "ancestral lands," which they say
run from Julesberg and La Junta west to Steamboat Springs and
Gunnison, a  total of some 27 million acres.  Their proposal is to give
up their claim to that land in exchange for land in Central City, on
which they would build their 150-million-dollar, multi-faceted
"Homecoming Project."  This conception would replace a previous one in
which the tribes had considered locating their project east of Denver
along Interstate 70, where casino gambling is illegal.  Substituting a
Central City location, where gambling has been legal since 1990, would
eliminate concerns regarding the expansion of gambling in Colorado.

An interesting question underlying the whole premise is whether the
Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes actually have any claim to exchange
regarding the alleged 27 million acres of land.

History shows that in the 1700s, the Ute inhabited the area from the
Front Range on westward, Shoshone were to the northwest, Jicarilla
Apache were in the southern San Luis Valley, and some Pawnee were out
on the Plains.  Accounts by American and Spanish explorers, such as
Zebulon Pike and General Juan Bautista de Anza, substantiate this.  In
the early 1800s, the Arapaho and Cheyenne moved into Colorado from the
western Great Lakes region.  Themselves pushed southwestward, they in
turn displaced the Pawnee and Comanche by waging war, and also attempted
to push out the Utes as well.  Their role as invaders paralleled that
of the American whites - land was wrenched by force from those who had
inhabited it originally.

Various treaties, none of which encompassed anything approaching the
amount of 27 million acres specified by the Arapaho and Cheyenne,
established some legalities.  The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie gave
land between the North Platte and Arkansas rivers, bounded on the west
by the mountains, to the Cheyenne and Arapaho, but the 1861 Treaty of
Fort Wise then put the Cheyenne and Arapaho on a 600-square-mile
reservation at Sand Creek near the Arkansas River.  It was at that
site that the tribes were the brunt of a genocidal attack on November
29, 1864, by Colonel John Chivington, which set off a three-year
period of war on the Plains.  In the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867,
the Cheyenne and Arapaho gave up any claims to Colorado and moved to
Oklahoma.  Seemingly these two tribes have ceded all their rights to
this state's land over a century ago, so unless the validity of any of
these treaties is challenged, they apparently would have no legal land
claim to exchange for Central City property.


Should the proposed Indian casino project come to fruition in Central
City, Black Hawk, which has eclipsed Central City in popularity and
gaming revenues for several years, doubtlessly will voice major
concerns.  Indian casinos in Colorado, although subject to the
state-wide five-dollar gaming limit, have had the advantage of
exemption from state taxes and longer hours of operation.  Black Hawk
will want a level playing field to minimize the impact that the
proposed Indian casino project could have on its own gaming economy.

It will be interesting to see if this project becomes a reality, and
if so, the effect that it will have on Central City.  Perhaps Central
City at last may live up to its potential in the gaming rivalry
between it and Black Hawk.






Caption for image: Colorado has two Indian casinos already, and
Central City is being considered as a location for a third.