LAWRENCE, Kan. – Representatives of the Delaware Nation in Oklahoma met with members of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce to discuss their proposal to build a $60 million casino-entertainment complex on land once its homeland after several relocations.
Chief Dee Ketchum and others involved in the proposed project met with the chamber representatives in an early-morning, secret, closed meeting to make its first, full presentation on the proposed complex which would include a casino, 300-room hotel, convention center and museum.
Mike Pace, tribal councilman and director of economic development, said that since its relocation to Oklahoma, the tribe really hasn’t had a land base. “We were forced out of (the Lawrence area) by gun point.” He said returning to Kansas and building the entertainment complex would be “like coming home.”
The tribe wants to buy some 80 acres of the land it once owned and put it into trust. If the project gets a green light from state and county officials, Pace said there are plans for other businesses in the area, including some tribal offices. He said the presentation was made to counter negative publicity the proposed entertainment center received from a group calling themselves Stand Up for Douglas County.
Members of that group circulated a petition fighting the proposed casino which would be built near the Lawrence Municipal Airport on the northern edge of the city. In early October Stand Up announced plans to run newspaper advertisements and continue to circulate petitions to fight the complex.
A Delaware member living in Lawrence said he believed the opposition wasn’t for any moral reasons, but because the group was holding out for higher land prices in the area being considered for the casino.
In recent newspaper articles the group’s co-chairwoman, former Lawrence mayor Shirley Martin-Smith, has gone on record saying that she believes Douglas County residents will oppose the proposed casino.
“They didn’t have all the information,” Pace said. “They’d be very hard pressed to say it’s a negative. I think it’s a great thing for Lawrence. There are other kinds of projects we would like to do. They don’t have to be on trust land and they would also help the community.”
A source close to the tribe revealed that the 400 or so members of the tribe who live in the Lawrence area support the casino project. He said that most of the 3,500 plus members of the Native American community in Lawrence support it.
Asked if families who chose to stay in Kansas during the relocation after the removal would be eligible for re-enrollment in the tribe, Pace said he wasn’t sure, but that anything was possible.
The Delaware upped their ante by offering to build a convention center for the city of Lawrence and Pace said that even though the tribe doesn’t have to pay all taxes collected in the area, it will. Pace estimated the tax revenue for the state of Kansas would be at around $52 million per year from the entertainment complex.
The presentation to the chamber showed the initial project would provide around 800 jobs and eventually 1,400 jobs would be created by the project. The tribe also offered to make considerable donations to both the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University to use in any way the universities see fit.
Projecting an influx of Delaware people to the Lawrence area, a source close to the tribe said the Delaware Housing Authority is considering the possibility of a housing project in the Lawrence area.
The tribe sees the whole concept as a win-win proposition for both the Delaware and the city of Lawrence, but understands there will be questions from Lawrence residents, Pace said.
“It was the first time that we really explained the whole program to them because the information that had been coming out, the petitions that had been coming out, didn’t have the information there for them to make a decision on this thing.
“We weren’t asking them to make a decision. We just thought it was time to present the program so everyone would have a chance to understand the whole thing and what it really represented.”
Bill Sepic, president of the Lawrence Chamber, said it would not have a decision on whether to support the Delaware proposal until after Nov. 22. He said his organization took a straw poll of Lawrence residents in September regarding the proposed entertainment center, but results would not be disclosed.
Asked why the chamber support was so important, Sepic explained that its membership encompasses businesses within a 25-mile radius of Lawrence and thus it includes a very large base of local businesses.
“There are certainly some benefits to the development and there are certainly some areas that generate concern,” he said. “There is still some concern regarding the casino part of the development. Does it create an attraction? Are concerns regarding crime warranted or not warranted?”
Pace said that worries the community might have regarding crime weren’t warranted because of the strict regulation of Indian gaming.
“Indian casinos are billion-dollar businesses right now,” Pace said. “A lot of the rumors about crime and Indian gaming just aren’t true. They are some of the most highly regulated businesses in the country. Problems that exist in Vegas don’t exist in Indian gaming.”
Sepic said questions and concerns regarding collegiate athletics and gambling were raised. “There is concern with having three universities in the area and student gambling is a concern.”
Rumors in the Lawrence area tied the decision as to whether the Delaware project is approved to the South Lawrence Trafficway, a proposed four-lane highway project through the southern end of Haskell Indian Nations University.
Representatives from both the tribe and the chamber denied any truth to rumors of a possible trade of SLT for approval of the casino project.
“Those rumors aren’t coming from people who are involved with either project,” Sepic said.
Pace said he had heard something about the SLT controversy, but the tribe planned to stay out of it.
Funding for the project is coming from the Gillman Group of San Diego which has seven Indian gaming operations in California and Nevada, Pace said.
He also said that with regulations in place, Lawrence residents need to realize any investors have to undergo federal investigation before being allowed to be involved with an Indian gaming operation.
“We really haven’t talked to a whole lot of people up there,” Pace said. “This is the first time we have really presented a program in that area. We think once they get a look at it and kind of absorb it a little bit, it will be pretty positive. It will cost the community nothing and they will profit from it. We’re going to build them a $20 million convention center.”
What the tribe will do if the project isn’t approved is unclear right now. Pace did say other areas had approached the tribe regarding possible sites for the project.
Rita Napier, professor at the University of Kansas, said tribal land, which stretched from near Leavenworth to 200 miles west of Lawrence, was taken from the Delaware under questionable treaties in the 1800s. At that time tribal members were told that if they wanted to remain members of the tribe they had to relocate to their present site in Oklahoma. Those who wanted to stay on the land lost their birthright and membership in the tribe through federal legislation.