The Four Winds Tribal Coalition is
proposing a 4,500-acre Foreign Trade
Zone to serve the eastern Coachella Valley,
and on Tuesday plans to ask the county
Board of Supervisors for a vote of support.

The site includes 3,542 acres of tribal land
and 1,000 developable acres around the
county’s Jacqueline Cochran Regional
Airport in Thermal.

The coalition, made up of three tribal
nations, drew from the decades-long
experiences of the first tribal Foreign Trade
Zone by the Tohono O’odham Nation near
Tucson, Ariz., to prepare for the FTZ
designation and hire national experts to
write its application.

Tribal chairmen said the goal of the
coalition and the foreign trade zone is to
attract capital investment, infrastructure
and, most importantly, jobs to eastern
Coachella Valley.

Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit
said he supports the Four Winds’ efforts.

“Establishing a Foreign Trade zone of tribal
lands and a key aviation asset will help
create a climate that welcomes
manufacturers, and the jobs they create, to
our county,’’ Benoit said in a statement.

“I commend the partnering tribal
governments for the essential contributions
they are making to the economic health of
our valley,” he added.

Tribes in the coalition are Cabazon and
Twenty-Nine Palms bands of Mission
Indians and the Torres-Martinez Band of
Desert Cahuilla.

David Roosevelt, chairman of the Cabazon
Band and the coalition, said the Foreign
Trade Zone is a way for tribes to leverage
the benefits derived from Indian gaming
into diverse economic opportunities that
benefit tribal people and the county as a
whole.

"We continuously look for avenues to
support the communities in which we work
and reside,'' he said