Leech Lake vote OKs new casino

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Sept. 2, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe narrowly approved by a 485-408 margin to spend up to $30 million on a new Northern Lights Casino in Walker, the tribe announced Wednesday.

The election was held Tuesday, but vote totals weren't available until Wednesday.

The Leech Lake Tribal Council's plan for the new facility included a casino, hotel, restaurant and convention center with daycare facilities and a recreational vehicle park.

With the vote margin close in every reservation district, it seems the large number of absentee ballots in favor of the project may have tipped the scales. Absentee ballots in favor outnumbered those against by at least a 5-to-1 margin, while in every other district, the votes were almost even.

In Districts I and II and in the absentee ballots, more votes were cast in favor of the project. In District II and Minneapolis more votes were cast against.

With only 14.7 percent of the tribe's eligible voters showing at the polls, Leech Lake Chairman Eli Hunt said he was surprised there were so few voters.

He said he expected at least 1,000 of an eligible 6,039 Leech Lake voters to show at the polls.

In addition to the low number of voters, Hunt said he was surprised by the small margin of the vote, expecting it to be lopsided for or against the project.

"Yea, I'm surprised by the vote," he said Wednesday. "I thought for sure it would be a more decisive vote one way or the other. Maybe 70-30 percent or 65-35 percent, one way or the other."

Hunt said the narrow margin will not affect the decision of the council to now proceed with building the new casino.

"I'm a little bit concerned about the margin of approval. I would have felt better if the numbers were more in favor," he said. "(But) right up front when we passed a resolution, we decided if it was 50 percent plus one (in favor), we would do it. And if it was 50 percent plus one (against) we wouldn't do it. I think our constituents knew this."

Hunt said he thinks there were many reasons people voted against the casino, but added there were two major ones.

He said there were people who felt if the band was going to borrow as much as $30 million to build something, the tribe should use the money to build a hospital or nursing home.

"They are very legitimate, valid arguments," Hunt said. "I am sure there are those people who think (the council's) priorities are wrong."

He also said he thinks people voted against the casino because they felt they wouldn't receive any benefits from it, meaning they wouldn't see future per capita payments. Some American Indian tribes earn large profits from their casino operations and distribute that money among their enrolled members in annual per capita payments.

Hunt said the council's next step is to hire a project manager to help guide the tribe through the process of building the casino and that should be done within a week.

The project manager then will help guide the council in a decision whether to build the casino all at once or in phases.

According to a feasibility paid for by the tribe, the project would succeed whether it be built in stages with the casino and hotel coming first or it be built all at once.

Hunt said the tribe hopes to break ground on the new facility next spring with the project's completion scheduled for May 2001.

At 60,000 square feet, the new casino would be three times larger than the current Northern Lights Casino, which sits four miles south of Walker at the junction of state Highways 371 and 200.

The new casino will feature room for 1,000 slot machines and 16 gaming tables, while the current facility has 460 slots and nine gaming tables. The hotel would feature about 100 beds.

In addition, there are plans for a 50-unit RV park, a daycare operation for patrons, a restaurant and a convention center serving 450 to 750 guests.

But Hunt said the council will not let the project exceed the $30 million limit, and he said the council hopes to keep the cost of the project between $20 to $25 million.

Hunt said he expects the new casino to provide up to 200 new jobs.