The off-reservation debate for Indian casinos is expected to flare again in California, as the federal approval process has advanced to the next step for the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians in Barstow.

The Department of Interior today published a draft Environmental Impact Statement in the Federal Register, a step that kicks off an official 75-day public comment period to put 26 acres of land-into-trust for a $160 million casino hotel.
“We just completed the most extensive portion of the process necessary to take land into trust,” Los Coyotes spokesman Shane Chapparosa said in a statement, capping 10-years of work with Barstow and DOI officials to obtain land to build the 100-room casino hotel with 1,325 slot machines and 57 table games.

Located on I-15, the main highway from southern California to Las Vegas, Chapparosa said the casino would primarily capture revenues that are currently going to Nevada – adding more than 1,000 jobs for the city of Barstow and surrounding areas, some 823 gaming jobs that would be new and additional to California.

“It’s like we’ve turned back time,’’ said Cheryl Schmit, director of the watchdog group, Stand Up California.

 The Los Coyotes’ proposed casino site is some 150 miles from the Los  Coyotes’ current, established reservation.

Plans to build it had been mothballed over a Bush administration policy and a great deal of push-back from tribes with casinos on federally-recognized reservations.

The policy required off-reservation gaming to occur within a commutable distance from an established reservation. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk removed the commutability requirement this month, as part of a plan to continue to pursue a balanced course on off-reservation gaming policy.