National activist Cheryl Schmit brought banners, letters and pre-addressed envelopes to a meeting Saturday, Nov. 19, in Joshua Tree.

JOSHUA TREE - This community is becoming part of budding national upheaval over off-reservation American-Indian gaming.
"Right now you're at the tip of the spear. You're involved in a much bigger issue than you were first introduced to," Cheryl Schmit, director of Stand Up For California, told a Joshua Tree Community Association meeting of about 60 people in the community center Saturday.
Schmit told the group what to expect now that the Twentynine Palms Band of Mission Indians has announced its intention to build a casino in Joshua Tree.
The tribe owns 130 acres on Twentynine Palms Highway just east of Desert View Homes' metal dinosaurs. To legally host gaming on the property, members must convince the Secretary of the Interior to accept the land and hold it in trust for the tribe.
"Once it goes into trust, they can allow gambling on it if (their project) meets federal exceptions," Schmit said.
The gaming plan must meet two standards. First, it must be beneficial to the tribe - "I kind of go, ‘Duh, it's a casino,'" Schmit quipped. Second, it must not be detrimental to the community.
However, Schmit cautioned, locals' opinions on the casino won't necessarily be taken into consideration. "Not once in 12 pages of regulations does it say the Secretary of the Interior has to consult with the community." The regulations do require the Interior to consult with local officials and other tribes.
If the Secretary of the Interior signs off on the trust, casino opponents can appeal. At that time, the appeals board will want to see evidence that community members were taking part in the process all along- even if their voices weren't heard at first.
"You need to be active and participate in every stage of the process," Schmit declared, as several audience members took careful notes on her advice.
Ultimately, California's governor must also approve the trust deal between the Interior Department and a tribe. Schmit provided copies of a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown asking him to consider community opposition to casino projects currently under consideration in California, including the one in Joshua Tree. She and Joshua Tree Community Association President Victoria Fuller urged attendees to write their own notes on the letters and mail them that day. At the door, a Stand Up For California volunteer provided pre-addressed envelopes and stamps.
Lawmakers look to pull back on trusts
Schmit is a pro at the push and pull over Indian lands. She founded Stand Up For California in 1996 when an American Indian tribe launched a casino-building project in her Northern California community.
It couldn't stop the casino, but her group was able to get the nation's first judicially enforceable agreement with a tribe, requiring they follow California's environmental rules and pay fees to local communities, Schmit said Saturday.
Since then, she's been guiding other communities who are trying to prevent or regulate casino expansion.
The issue is reaching a tension point as federal lawmakers move to curtail American Indians' ability to place lands into trust for off-reservation casinos, even as increasing numbers of tribes apply for the trust agreements.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and Sen. John McCain of Arizona are backing bills that would make a tribe wanting to place land into trust prove that members have a historic and modern connection to the property - something many tribes across America could have a hard time achieving.
"It is no coincidence the Twentynine Palms band is applying for an off-reservation casino at this time," Schmit claimed.
She urged the people in the audience to stay abreast of developments in Washington and Sacramento, and to keep contacting their federal representatives and Gov. Jerry Brown.
Said Schmit, "You need Jerry Brown and he needs to hear from you."
Although many of the meeting's audience members might have wanted to hear how to defeat the casino completely, Schmit warned them that isn't always possible.
What they can do, she said, is negotiate with the Twentynine Palms band to follow the California Environmental Quality Act process - something tribes aren't legally required to do - and make other concessions to the community.
From the audience, Eva Montville of Joshua Tree asked how she can reconcile her opposition to the casino to her sympathy for the historic mistreatment of American Indians. "I've been listening to you talk about the process and thinking, ‘That's not fair, that's not right.' I can't help but think how the Indians must have felt when Europeans came and stole their land," Montville said.
"It's most rewarding when we can come to an agreement with the tribes that both the community and the tribe can live with," Schmit said.
"The issue is not to take anything away from the tribes, but to hold them to their agreements.