Last month’s media splash promoting the notion of a Tejon Indian Casino, complete with a gleaming, computer-generated image of a finished resort, had many in the public thinking that the project is a done deal.

Now there is whispering of the possibility that the Kern County Board of Supervisors may slip in a “public hearing” for next Tuesday, July 23, without actually notifying the public in advance.

In fact, the deal is not done, which is not clear from most media reports. Murkiness about the process itself has concerned groups and citizens pressing for more transparency and public participation on such a massive project.

Cheryl Schmit is director of “Stand Up for California!,” a non-profit public interest group that is closely involved with the development of gaming policy for over twenty years. Schmit is concerned that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is purposely excluding public participation and comment from the process, which is a violation of NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act).

When news quietly leaked that a Memo of Understanding (MOU) had been struck with the county and a hearing might be on the Kern County Board’s agenda for next week, Schmit called it a “back door deal.”

“I can’t believe they have developed a MOU without even involving the public,” she said.
The BOS agenda will be published at 2 p.m. on Thursday. The Mountain Enterprise will place a Breaking News report online if a hearing on this issue is included.

Proactive public action

The TriCounty Watchdogs met Sunday, July 14 to clarify their concerns about the casino. The following are key points in a letter they sent to BIA’s Amy Dutschke at the beginning of this process, in September 2015:

Archeological sites

•The casino complex is located at the southern shore of the former Kern Lake, site of several Kern Lake Yokuts villages. Construction will destroy key sites. Even if artifacts are moved to a tribal repository at Bakersfield University (as proposed), this formerly highly populated, important site will be obliterated.

Rightful tribal land claim

•The TriCounty Watchdogs assert that the federally recognized Tejon Indian tribe proposing the casino has no actual ancestral or cultural ties to the Kern Lake Indian peoples. Another group does, and they need to be allowed a determining voice in what happens to this land.

•An 1880s map shows that the proposed casino site sits on Kern Lake Yokuts-Hometwoli/ Halaumne territory. Further east, part of a separate language group, is Kitanemuk territory.

•At least 400 Kern Lake tribal descendants still live in the area, from different groups. They came together in 1995 to file for federal tribal recognition. When one member of the proposed tribe linked up with a deep-pocketed Las Vegas investor, the tribe split. The faction that paired with the gambling investors, and was subsequently federally recognized as the Tejon Indian Tribe, actually identifies as Kitanemuk—a group with no cultural connection to the Kern Lake Yokuts land that has been chosen for their “reservation” casino.

Environmental issues

•Increased I-5 traffic will add more pollution to the already dirty air (Bakersfield consistently rates among the worst polluted air nationally).

•A resort of this size will put tremendous stress on precious water sources.

•The resort will generate a huge amount of artificial light, which will likely affect the “dark skies” so valued by astronomers and astrophotographers in the Frazier Park area.

•There may be endangered species on the land, such as the burrowing owl, San Joaquin kit fox and the San Joaquin coachwhip (snake).

Social issues

•The TriCounty Watchdogs say that Bakersfield and Kern County social service agencies are currently burdened with urgently high rates of methamphetamine addiction, teenage pregnancy and low education rates. “Will gambling addiction be added?” they ask.

•While they acknowledge that the correlation between casinos and crime is contested, “everyone agrees that gambling addiction is a problem exacerbated by casinos.”

•Bakersfield and Kern County agencies are already overwhelmed. How will added social services and workers be funded?

Public health: valley fever

•The California Department of Public Health tracks that 75% of all valley fever cases are from the San Joaquin Valley. Digging for construction will disrupt the spores, and visitors to the casino who have no natural immunity from growing up in the area may be at greater risk.

Construction workers, tourists and resort employees will daily be exposed to the Coccidioides fungus spores, released from the soil and spread with the wind.

Compiled in part with information from Katherine King; Marcy Axness with
Patric Hedlund, TME

Photo captions:

The TriCounty Watchdogs gathered July 14 to consider the impacts of the proposed Tejon Indian Casino in Mettler: (l-r) Richard and Susan Zahnter of the Western Antelope Valley; Terry Kelling of Frazier Park; Katherine King, Kathleen Weinstein and Lynn Stafford of Pine Mountain Club; with Rose Bryan of Gorman.

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This is part of the July 19, 2019 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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