OK, now what?

Appealing to their sense of right and wrong didn't work.

Suing them didn't work.

What happens now in Temecula's battle with the Pechanga Indians over the tribe's refusal to abide by the spirit of a contract it signed with the city?
Of course, it should be noted that the city is in a fix that is somewhat of its own making. After all, it entered into a three-way contract with the tribe and Riverside County without having any control over the part of the deal between the county and the tribe. That was bad lawyering by the city.

That doesn't excuse the fact, though, that the Pechanga agreed to pay the city about $2 million per year to help counter the impact of thousands of slot machines on its neighbor, then sought refuge in a loophole to keep from paying it.

Some background: In 2008, voters said tribes operating casinos in California could exceed the statutory limit of 2,000 slot machines if they reached agreements with neighboring cities and counties to offset the effects of the larger casinos on those communities. Larger casinos mean more traffic and more law enforcement headaches.

The loophole in the Pechanga-Temecula deal is that the contract, ostensibly to have taken effect last summer, doesn't really go into effect until all three parties have reached an agreement ---- and the county and the Pechanga are hundreds of thousands of dollars apart in their negotiations.

What's more, because they already have the machines in place, the Pechanga have absolutely no motivation to reach an agreement with the county.
But Temecula was also foolish to sue the tribe, in the face of overwhelming legal opinion that the suit had no chance to succeed. It lost last week, as expected, and now the earth between the city and the reservation is even more scorched. A once-cordial relationship between the two entities looks all but irreparably damaged.

Being in the right legally, however ---- and being immune from lawsuits ---- doesn't mean the tribe is in the right morally.

The Pechanga tribe is one of the richest in the state, if not the nation, thanks to casino gaming ---- and to a partnership of sorts with the city that helped widen the roads and bridges to its casino. A couple of million dollars a year is a relative drop in the Pechanga bucket.

It has the ability to right the wrong and begin to heal the relationship with its neighbor by either reaching an agreement with the county or simply by paying the city what it agreed.

And while we are fully cognizant of the historical irony of suggesting an Indian tribe has a moral duty to live up to the spirit of its contractual agreements with non-Indians, we nevertheless hope it will take that step.