Jemez Pueblo submits application again for casino

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LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) – The Jemez Pueblo and its partner are hoping their third attempt at applying for an off-reservation casino with the U.S. Interior Department is a go.

The Albuquerque Journal reports the pueblo wants to build a 103,000-square-foot casino on 70 acres of land, along with a 90,000-square-foot hotel on an adjacent 32-acre piece of land in Anthony, between Las Cruces and El Paso.

Larry Echo Hawk, assistant secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, had previously announced the federal government would not take in 100 acres of land alongside Interstate 10 into trust for the tribal project.

Echo Hawk said the federal government was concerned about Jemez Pueblo's ability to exercise jurisdiction on the proposed casino site, nearly 300 miles south of the pueblo's reservation northwest of Albuquerque.

Jemez Pueblo partner Gerald Peters, and his attorney Denise Greenlaw Ramonas, said this time around the tribe made “technical changes” to an intergovernmental services agreement with Dona Ana County covering police, fire and emergency medical services for the proposed off-reservation casino.

“The new agreements make it clear that while the county is providing services, the pueblo is exercising government control,” Ramonas said.

The tribe plans to have a pueblo substation at the casino site, with officers cross-deputized with Dona Ana County, Ramonas said.

When his decision came last September, Echo Hawk said Interior had not ruled on key threshold issues for the proposed casino, including whether it would be in the tribe's best interest and whether it would be detrimental to the surrounding community of Anthony near the Texas border.

Tribal members say the proposed casino is needed and has support of neighboring cities.

“This is a project that is beneficial to the tribe and has overwhelming support in the community,” said Benny Shendo, a tribal member and adviser to the Jemez Pueblo enterprise board. Shendo noted the Las Cruces City Council in early February passed a resolution supporting the project.

Any casino plan approved by the Interior Department would also require the governor's OK.

Meanwhile, the Oklahoma-based Fort Sill Apache tribe, with roots in New Mexico's southwest corner, plans to submit its application to Interior to open a casino on a 30-acre reservation site between Deming and Las Cruces later this year.

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Information from: Albuquerque Journal, http://www.abqjournal.com