Tribe against tribe

By Tuesday morning, I will have put about another 800 or 900 miles on my pick-up over the past week. Much of that will be the typical 30 mile one-way trip to Grand Ronde from McMinnville, plus incidental personal use. A lot of it will have been miles driving from home and Grand Ronde to multiple sites like Cascade Locks, Hood River, and Portland for the public hearings on the Warm Springs' proposed "Bridge of the Gods" casino in the Columbia River Gorge. I missed Wednesday's hearing in Stevenson, Washington. Most of the Council left after lunch, but I had a commitment back in the office, forcing me into a late start. Ultimately, I called a co-worker about halfway there, pretty sure that the Portland rush-hour traffic would force me to miss half the meeting. Traffic jams are high on the list of those things that test my patience.
Tomorrow night in Hood River is the finale of the hearings, the first one having been in Warm Springs two weeks ago. The two I have attended, Cascade Locks last Monday and Portland on Thursday, were put on before packed houses. A clear majority of people testifying at the hearings have spoken in favor of the gorge casino. A lot of those people have been Warm Springs members, many Elders, transported to the sites for the purpose of testifying. Grand Ronde has taken similar actions. The hearings feel like a sporting contest, as if there is a competition to see who can pack the room with their side more, the intentions of both to make public opinion look as if it favors their side. I would say that Warm Springs could be winning, but then again tomorrow is only my third meeting. The order of speakers in Cascade Locks appeared tampered with. At all meetings the speakers have run over the allotted time, and the carryover started the following hearing.
I've never much cared for the entire nature of the gorge casino debate. After these hearings I am even more uncomfortable. There has been an air of borderline hostility in these meetings, and the tension is thick. Warm Springs members, some of them leaders, who I have worked with and gotten to know over the past fours years will give me the time of day, but conversation is pretty minimal. Under the circumstances, social interactions are expectedly awkward. Conversations go nowhere near the topic surrounding us. One notable member who knew my opinions laments that if I had been there, on the Grand Ronde Tribal Council, maybe I would "talk some sense into them." I inform him I am on the Council, however I am no longer Chair. Evidently, that was news to him.
Other regional Tribal leaders speak out in favor of the gorge casino, as do assorted local politicians. All of them are pretty convinced that this project will happen. All of them are pretty convinced that this casino will revive Cascade Locks economy, that there will be little pollution, that there will be no problem accommodating a small army of Warm Springs residents who will commute the supposed 40 mile one-way drive for work.
Opposition feel, well, almost the opposite. After 10 years and $20 million, the project will not happen. Cascade Locks will not rise from the ashes of economic despair, the gorge will be irrevocably tainted, and the 109 mile one-way commute is completely unrealistic.
Despite what studies show, I don't think there is any way we will ever really know unless the event actually happens. Quite frankly, that doesn't appear very likely to ever happen, for numerous reasons. I personally believe we will start to see tighter restrictions on Indian gaming, and there is guaranteed to be a new presidential administration within a year. On top of that, given the stakes and tone of this debate, you can't really rule out litigation the further along this project continues. While I haven't been 100% behind how Grand Ronde has chosen to get involved in all this, I can't quite agree with how Warm Springs is choosing to proceed either. At some point, I think, you have to be realistic. These public hearings, while enlightening, aren't much to show for a decade of time and money.
I am seriously considering speaking tomorrow and saying basically what I've written here. My main reservation though is that people will be confused. A Grand Ronde leader would be expected to be completely in support of what his Tribe is doing, which I'm not. But on the flipside I can't in good conscience say I support what Warm Springs are doing. They have been paying handsomely to be led down a road that might lead nowhere, and I can think of one person whose name I will not mention, who has probably made a lot of money convincing them to do this. There is, I am convinced, a better way to deal with all this. It is not a black and white issue. It never has been.