by Ken Thomas

Washington, D. C. (AP)

A Grand Rapids-based tribe asked a Senate panel during late June to speed up the process of the government’s review over whether it should become federally recognized, but an antigambling group cautioned it could lead to a new casino.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians chairman Ron Yob said millions of dollars in federal funding are at stake if the Department of Interior delays its review past a December deadline for tribes to receive funds through a 1997 federal law.

“If no action is taken within the next few months, the Grand River Band will be denied millions of dollars that has been specifically set aside for the band by federal law,” Levin said. “It would truly be an injustice to not allow the Grand River Band to take its rightful place among the family of federally recognized tribes.”

The tribe would need federal recognition to receive about $4.4 million, officials said, but the normal review process can take more than a decade.

The former head of a western Michigan antigambling group told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that the timeline was being driven by gambling interests and was a precursor to a new casino in Muskegon through a partnership between the tribe and a local development group.

“When it comes to tribal gaming expansion, the whole deal looks less like of the people, by the people and for the people’ and more like ‘of Las Vegas, by the lobbyist and for the management company,”’ said the Rev. David Willerup, the former president of Positively Muskegon.

The Grand River Band entered into a business alliance with developer Archimedes Group LLC of Muskegon, which announced plans in 2003 to redevelop property to include a casino, convention and retail center on Muskegon Lake.

Voters approved a nonbinding ballot question supporting casino gambling in September 2003 but later that year rejected two proposed ordinances for casinos.

Under questioning from Indian Affairs Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., Yob said that “casinos are way down the list” and his tribe’s priorities are improving education and health care opportunities for its tribe of about 700 members.

Yob said in an interview that the tribe agreed to repay money the developer has spent helping them seek tribal recognition. Asked about a possible casino, he said: “We don’t think about it. We have kids that are dysfunctional, we have children that are being taken away from their families.”

The Grand River Band first declared its intention of becoming recognized in 1994, submitted nearly two dozen boxes of documents supporting its claims in December 2000 and did not hear from Interior until April 2004.

The tribe submitted a number of documents supporting its case June 9 and is awaiting further review from Interior officials.

Levin and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., introduced legislation in February 2005 directing the Interior secretary to expedite a review of the tribe’s petition seeking federal recognition. Levin stressed that the bill was not asking Congress to legislatively recognize the tribe.

Critics have said the process often takes years for tribes to win approval and one of the committee’s members suggested that it was overly burdensome.

R. Lee Fleming, director of the Interior Department’s Office of Federal Acknowledgment, said the lengthy review was “a necessary, thorough process” which has been burdened by the lineup of other tribes already awaiting review.

The Senate committee is expected to consider the bill in the coming weeks.