Had the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians initiated, constructed and operated a casino on their aboriginal homeland in North Fork when the opportunity was first available, the direct positive economic impact by now would surely be tens of millions of dollars of income to the tribe, with great beneficial impact to local communities.

California voters have never supported off-reservation gaming, which the North Fork Rancheria and its partner Station Casinos is proposing for Highway 99 in Madera, nearly 50 miles from their tribal lands. Rather, voters enacted Proposition 1A exactly to allow casinos on aboriginal tribal lands like North Fork.

Without growth and development, this community cannot sustain itself and will surely continue to stagnate and ultimately fail. A North Fork casino on its aboriginal land in North Fork would be a wonderful positive stimulus to our local economy and help relieve current desperate economic conditions, high unemployment and local business closures.

To say that North Fork is not suited for commercial development is counter to majority opinion. For example, there is a group of citizens promoting economic development on the former mill site. This is contrary to those few self-interested souls claiming North Fork is not suited for commercial development.

Look around: Two main transportation routes (Highway 41 and Road 200 from the South, and Highway 49 and Road 274 from the North. The tribe’s homeland, which is situated in the most scenic area of California — if not the world— with nearby Yosemite, Bass Lake, scenic byway and surrounding Sierra mountain lands already attracting millions of visitors.

The positive impact resulting from the introduction of Indian gaming to the North Fork-Bass Lake Area of Eastern Madera County would be refreshing and stimulating for the tribe and our local economy.

North Fork has wasted seven years and millions of dollars pursuing an off-reservation casino that the community, local officials, state legislators and businesses all oppose. It’s time they return their attention to their tribal lands and build a project that will benefit their members and their neighbors.

Roger Schneider, business owner,
Eastern Madera County

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 12:35 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.