Bush-Era Commutable-Distance Gaming Rule Nixed

A controversial Bush-era guidance memorandum that invented a new rule for off-reservation Indian gaming has finally been shredded. Department of the Interior (DOI) Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk, the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), told tribal leaders at the National Congress of American Indians mid-year conference on June 14 that he has rescinded a January 3, 2008, memo which said, among other things, that tribes could develop casinos on land off their reservations only if it was within “commutable distance.” The memo didn’t define “commutable distance,” but former Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Carl Artman, who issued the guidance memo, indicated in testimony to Congress that 40 miles was the farthest a tribe could go from its reservation, a BIA news release reported. The day after it was issued Artman rejected almost two dozen land-into-trust applications. Echo Hawk said he had rescinded the 2008 memorandum after extensive tribal consultations. “The 2008 guidance memorandum was unnecessary and was issued without the benefit of tribal consultation,” Echo Hawk said in a BIA news release. “We will proceed to process off-reservation gaming applications in a transparent manner, consistent with existing law.”...more