U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and then-Gov. David Paterson lent their on-site support amid much fanfare Nov. 22 to bring Indian gaming to Monticello, a project billed at $560 million and promoted as the key to some 4,900 jobs.
Now, the plan is back in limbo, taking its place among a long line of delayed and scrapped Native American gaming endeavors dating back 30 years. The St. Regis Mohawk proposal in Monticello of two years ago led nowhere. A 1985-planned Mohican casino site at Exit 21 in Greene County is now a Home Depot.
A Stockbridge-Munsee lawyer reported Jan. 31 that he had been told by federal Interior Department authorities that the tribe would not be granted its land claim. The lawyer told The New York Times any turnaround in the Interior Department position was “highly unlikely.”
A Stockbridge-Munsee spokesperson said the tribe will fight any decision that impinges its right to build a casino in the region it once called home. Objections have been vocal and well-funded, including from the state”™s active gaming interests. Any intertribal comity evaporated when the Oneida Tribe”™s Turning Stone Casino in the Syracuse area fought the idea.
The Interior Department has until Feb. 18 to render its official decision on the land claim at the heart of the approval process.
The Shinnecock Indians on Long Island received their land designation last year and now appear poised to sponsor a casino on Long Island.
