MOORHEAD — There was nothing new that came out of
other than maybe a different vibe.
Less sky-is-falling from residents, more emphasis that there won’t be a massive casino complex in Moorhead next week, next month or next year.
“This is the first step in many,” Moorhead Mayor Shelly Carlson said. “This isn’t going to happen anytime soon.”
There were fewer members of the Cranky Old White Guy caucus in attendance
compared to
the Clay County Commission meeting last week,
when several stood up and denounced the tribe’s proposal to build a casino, hotel, convention center and truck stop along Interstate 94.
There appeared to be clear sympathy for the tribe from at least some of the council.
Pushing back against opposition to putting the 280 acres purchased by White Earth into trust land, which would take it off county property tax rolls, council member Nicole Mattson gave a history lesson about her family. It was forced from its home in Elbowoods, N.D., which was lost when Lake Sakakawea was filled behind Garrison Dam on the Missouri River in the 1950s. The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation lost about 95% of its land suitable for growing crops because of the dam.
“We’re never going to make it right. We cannot compensate for the deliberate and repeated destruction of people’s homes and people’s lives and livelihoods, but to the extent we can try to make some amends, that is one of the purposes of the trust land,” Mattson said. “We have an obligation because we made agreements.”
Only three people made public comments this time and just two could be defined as skeptical of the White Earth proposal. Both were supervisors on the Glyndon Township board, representing the area in which the tribe’s land sits.
John Winter made the same pitch to the City Council that he did to the County Commission, asking that the tribe conduct three studies — an economic impact study, an environmental impact study and a study comparing the crime rate in Mahnomen County before and after the band’s Shooting Star Casino was completed in 2001.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
It was the third request that set off Zenas Baer, a Clay County attorney who was general counsel for the White Earth band from 1996 to 2001, who took the microphone after Winter.
“I was able to catch some of the comments made by the public at the County Commission meeting and I thought that the criticism of the tribe was unwarranted. It felt as though they were being attacked just because they’re a business coming in and proposing an expansion,” Baer said. “If this was Titan Machinery coming in, would you ask for a crime study? Would you ask any other business coming in for a crime study?”
Fair question and a sticky wicket for those loudly proclaiming their opposition to the casino at this very early stage. Are critics opposed to a business coming to Moorhead, or are they opposed to a Native American business coming to Moorhead?
Carlson, like county commissioner Kevin Campbell last week, stressed there are no decisions close to being made. There are no votes scheduled to be taken.
“We’re in the infancy stage,” White Earth Secretary-Treasurer Mike LaRoque told the council. “This is the very first step of it.”
As it did with the county, the tribe asked the Moorhead City Council for a letter of support in seeking to put its land into trust so it can have off-reservation gaming. Later Monday, the White Earth contingent made the same presentation before the Dilworth City Council.
Citizens should appreciate that the band is coming forward and seeking cooperation with Clay County, Moorhead and Dilworth. It starts the conversation. It shows a willingness to figure this out together.
The trust application itself can take 18-24 months. Environmental reviews, building infrastructure and construction would take at least that long.
There will not be a casino near Moorhead before 2030, if there ever is one.
“I think we should all keep in mind that this is a long-term situation. It’s not like something is happening next year,” Moorhead City Council member Lisa Borgen said. “I think we all have to kind of not get too excited.”
There are questions, questions and more questions. Environmental concerns, housing, cost of infrastructure, possible annexation, emergency services, etc., etc., etc.
It’s going to take a long time to answer them.
So relax, for now. The sky isn’t falling.
Mike McFeely is a columnist for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He began working for The Forum in the 1980s while he was a student studying journalism at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He’s been with The Forum full time since 1990, minus a six-year hiatus when he hosted a local radio talk-show.
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