MOORHEAD — To give you an idea of where the Cranky Old White Guy caucus stands on the possibility of the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe building a massive casino/resort complex east of Moorhead, one citizen who spoke at the Clay County commission meeting Tuesday called the tribe a “foreign” nation.
It’d be hard to come up with a group of Americans who are more American (and therefore less foreign) than Native Americans, but this is where we are in 2025. Ignoramuses, in this case former Clay County Republican Party chairman Fred Wright, have no problem speaking up.
Welcome, neighbors!
To their credit, the White Earth representatives who came to the meeting to make a short presentation about their broad vision for 280 acres the band purchased at the intersection of Interstate 94 and Highway 336 stayed reserved in the face of such witless comments.
Although White Earth Chairman Michael Fairbanks did take a few moments to deftly set the record straight about the band’s citizenship: “This is our homeland. We ceded this territory back when we signed that treaty in 1855. So, we’re not foreigners.”
What the meeting showed was that the road to get the casino built is going to be long. Which is fine. It should be. This is a major undertaking with many legitimate questions and hurdles.
It’s also going to be ugly. Which is not fine. There’s no need. There are enough valid reasons to examine the proposal from multiple angles that racism doesn’t need to enter the picture.
Tuesday’s meeting was the first public foray into discussion about what would undoubtedly be an economic boon for Moorhead and the surrounding area. The purpose was so White Earth representatives could offer a preliminary proposal of what they want to do — and, critically, ask for a letter of support from Clay County to put their land into trust so they can run a gaming operation off-reservation.
That’s all it was. There were no decisions made.
Anna Paige / The Forum
“This is one meeting on one morning at 9:10 in the morning. This is something that’s going to have a tremendous impact on our communities moving forward, and it deserves the appropriate dialogue,” commissioner Kevin Campbell said, correctly.
The band’s early sketch of a proposal was stunning. A casino of about 100,000 square feet, a convention center and meeting area of between 100,000 and 120,000 square feet, a 250-300 room resort-style hotel, three or four restaurants including fine dining and a bar, a themed lounge that could perhaps be a sports bar, a large truck stop and convenience store, 450-500 jobs with an average wage of $19 an hour.
For Moorhead, a game-changer and a level of business investment that the underdog city doesn’t see.
But, the questions.
Who will provide water and sewer? What effect will a project of such scale have on the underlying aquifer? Is a truck stop with gas pumps feasible near a site where two truck stops closed because of environmental concerns? If the land is placed in trust, will the county have any say over the tribe’s activities?
And more questions.
If property tax is lost because the land goes into trust, can the tribe make up the difference? How will the casino affect local charitable gaming? Will the tribe build housing for its workers on the land? Would the operation put a strain on social services? How about emergency services? Will Moorhead and Dilworth be on board?
“Just based on public input here today,” Campbell said, “there are an awful lot of questions.”
Anna Paige / The Forum
Some legit. Some not so much.
We will hear plenty of grievances over the coming months.
Dave Vipond, a farmer from Mahnomen who’s been battling the White Earth tribe for years over water rights, made the trek to Moorhead to gripe and disparage the band. Duane Erickson, a farmer from Ulen, complained about Native Americans not paying taxes on trust land.
“We’ve got to pay taxes. We’ve got to get it on a level playing field. We’re all Americans,” Erickson said. “I wake up every morning glad that my parents were U.S. citizens and I was born in the U.S. of A and not some third-world country. So all I want is a level playing field, and I’ll compete with anybody.”
Commissioner Jenny Mongeau, who seemed agreeable to the casino project and genuinely happy the Minnesota side of the Red River has the potential to get a large hotel with convention space, had a reasonable response.
“I’m not going to sit here and argue about what the Bureau of Indian Affairs has granted your tribe and all of the tribes in our country. That’s not my place,” she said. “My place is to figure out how we can move together to find the best amicable solution and to also take into account our natural resources, which I know the tribe has been very involved in and has been since your inception. I’m just hopeful that we can continue to be part of that dialogue as we move forward.”
Mongeau is correct. Let’s have the discussion. Let’s find the best solution. Let’s view this as an opportunity, with appropriate concerns.
But can we leave the trash out of it?
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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