September - Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe

FSST SEPTEMBER 2013 NEWSLETTER
Tribe wants to spend $34 million for casino near Oacoma
Bob Mercer Rapid City Journal correspondent
The former chairmen of the
Flandreau Santee Sioux
Tribe and the National Indian
Gaming Commission
spoke Tuesday night in favor
of a proposed $34 million
casino the Lower Brule
Sioux Tribe wants to build
near Oacoma.
About 20 people, most of
them from somewhere other
than Oacoma, showed up for
a meeting Tuesday night at a
hotel conference center at
Chamberlain that was held
by Lower Brule Sioux leaders
to answer questions
about the project.
The gathering came after the
Oacoma City Council voted
to oppose the project, which
is planned for tribal trust
land within the city limits
and just west of the Interstate
90 interchange on the
north side of the highway.
The Chamberlain City
Council has decided to stay
neutral on the proposal.
Oacoma officials are concerned
about costs and burdens
on city services such as
water and sewer for a community
with a population
listed at 451.
Richard Rangel, who is
spearheading the project for
the tribe, said that an environmental
assessment is
needed and likely will take
one year before those kinds
of questions can be fully answered.
“We are not about trying to
force anything on anyone,”
Lower Brule Sioux tribal
chairman Michael Jandreau
said in remarks that opened
the meeting. He said the
project, however, would
help develop the area's
economy.
“If it can’t get any better,
we all suffer, we all slide
backwards,” Jandreau said.
The casino is proposed in
two phases. The first is a
truck and travel center and a
casino costing an estimated
$34 million. Revenues from
the businesses would be
used to eventually pay for
the $19 million second
phase of a multi-story hotel
tower and events center.
Phil Hogen, a former U.S.
attorney for South Dakota
and a former member of the
National Indian Gaming
Commission, spoke for the
project. He grew up at Kadoka
and practiced law for
part of his career at Kennebec.
“We think this can be a winwin,”
he said.
Because the project would
be built on tribal-owned
property that isn’t connected
to the reservation and was
placed in federal trust after
the 1988 passage of the Indian
Gaming Regulatory
Act, the casino would need
17
the approval of the U.S.
Secretary of the Interior and
ultimately the governor.
So far, Gov. Dennis Daugaard
hasn’t expressed an
opinion on the plan. Eight of
the nine tribal governments
in South Dakota operate onreservation
casinos.
Tom Ranfranz, who was
president for the Flandreau
Santee Sioux Tribe for six
years, talked about his
tribe’s experiences with its
casino operations.
“It really has been very positive,”
he said.
The tribe’s original casino
was built in 1990 and now
employs 290, according to
Ranfranz. He said 237 of
those jobs are held by residents
of Flandreau and surrounding
Moody County
and about 50 percent of the
employees are tribal members.
Ranfranz now serves as a
liaison for the Shakopee
Mdewakanton tribe that operates
a large casino in suburban
Minneapolis and is
financing the Lower Brule
project. He said the
Shakopee organization has
19 projects in various stages
of development and Oacoma
is one of the most
promising.
“The key is location, location,
location,” he said.