Fort Sill Apache Tribe Urges Interior to Withdraw "Fatally Flawed" DEIS for Jemez Casino

In its comment letter about the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the off-reservation casino proposed in Anthony, New Mexico, within its Aboriginal Homelands, by Santa Fe multi-millionaire Gerald Peters and the northern New Mexico Jemez Pueblo, the Fort Sill Apache Tribe has urged the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of the Interior to withdraw the draft statement and start over. 

The letter, addressed to William Walker, Southwest Regional Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, described the statement as "so inadequate as to preclude meaningful analysis" and urged the agency to revise and recirculate it. "In other words," said Tribal Chairman Jeff Houser, "the document is fatally flawed, and it should be withdrawn." 

Specifically, the Tribe is concerned that the statement considers only one site, only one type of project, and only one design, and that the statement incorrectly states that most of its jobs would go to New Mexicans when, in reality, the majority of its jobs would go to Texans. (An economic report describing this is posted on the tribe's website.)

The Tribe also expressed its concern that the statement failed to adequately address its deep historical roots in Southern New Mexico and made no reference to its current presence there with its Apache Homelands Casino in Deming. Finally, the Tribe stated its concerns about being shut out of the process by the Federal Government, particularly the agency's rejection of the Tribe's 2009 request for cooperating-agency status on the project. 

In summarizing its comments, Tribal Officials stated that, "We hope that our comment letter will help provide the BIA with some of the information it needs to make an informed decision, and we look forward to working cooperatively with the agency if this project continues." 

The Mescalero Apache Tribe is among the other tribes that are against the proposed $55 million casino, according to this .

The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is successor in interest to the Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apache people that lived in Southern New Mexico and Arizona until 1886, when they were forcibly removed and held as Prisoners of War of the United States for 28 years. The Tribe’s members are descendants of those people who upon their release in 1914 remained in Oklahoma and maintained their status as independent Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apaches until the tribe was restored years later as the Fort Sill Apache Tribe. The tribe has long expressed its desire to return to its homelands.