Tucson, Arizona might soon have another Native American casino after President Biden signed legislation recently clearing the construction project. The Pascua Yaqui Tribe’s Deer Dancer statue is in Tucson outside its administration offices. The tribe got federal approval to construct the tribal gaming property on land that was sovereign through President Bide and Congress.
The federal government recognized Tucson’s Pascua Yaqui Tribe in 1978. Even so, its acknowledgment of its rooted ties to Tucson and the community’s origins 45 years ago excluded the 40-acre land that Pascua Tribe has owned for almost a century,
Some tribal families donated the land, called Old Pascua, to the Pascua Tribe. It has since been categorized as a sacred ceremonial site. Even so, the Arizonian tribe recently requested the federal administration to classify its land as sovereign and put it into federal trust.
Generally, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs addresses land trust issues. But, the Coronavirus pandemic and presidential administration transition have played a key role in fulfilling the Pascua Tribe’s wishes for Old Pascua to be sovereign. Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona), United States Representative, took the bull by the horns in 2022 when he introduced federal legislation which requires the DOI’s Indian Affairs Bureau to place Old Pascual into trust to benefit the tribe.
The New Old Pascua Act
Grijalva crafted HR4881-THE “Old Pascua Community Land Acquisition Act” that got unprecedented support in the U.S. Senate and House. It designates Old Pascua as a sovereign territory. So, the Pascua Tribe can offer tribal gaming on the land under Arizona’s Class III gaming compact.
The contract permits the Native tribe to own and manage Casino of the Sun and Casino del Sol Resort southwest of downtown Tucson. Old Pascua is the region east of Interstate 10, south of West Grant Road, west of North 15th Avenue, and north of West Calle Adelanto.
The new legislation instructs the U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to accept and take the land into trust. Yet, this is a retroactive tribal act that deems Old Pascua to have been possessed and taken into trust on September 18, 1978, the same day that the U.S. government formally recognized Pascua Tribe.
The U.S. President signed the Old Pascua Community Land Acquisition Act on December 27, 2022. He later thanked Grijalva’s co-sponsors and him for their remarkable leadership.
Is a Former Movie Theatre the New Target?
The new Land Acquisition Act defines Old Pascua, including a former movie complex which the Pascua Tribe bought for $4.7 million in 2011. It is off Interstate 10, one of Arizona’s most traveled and busiest highways which covers southern Arizona from Mexico north and towards Los Angeles.
Tucson officials agreed with the Pascua Tribe in 2019, hoping that the tribe would launch a casino on the land in the future once it is deemed sovereign. Still, the tribe has pledged to make “payments in lieu of tax” to the Tucson City Council. It will share 2.6 percent of the casinos’ retail sales, such as alcohol, with Tucson.
The city will receive 2 percent of entertainment and food sales revenue. Besides, it will charge the casino $4 per day for every occupied hotel room. The Pascua Tribe hadn’t revealed a lot of details about its casino’s construction plan.
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