Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague. By that time, the tribe had divided. There were two possible candidates for reasserting the claim. The first tribe he contacted, the Sioux, was not interested. But the other one, Bay Mills, was very interested. And so this wonderful lawyer began preparing a case to file based on the delinquency sale he had uncovered and its connection to the tribe he had interest in. A bare week before the lawsuit was filed, another enterprising gentleman purchased some land within the Charlotte Beach claim area. Coincidental. And within a few months, he had entered into a so-called settlement with the tribe regarding the so-called land claim in which he agreed to give the tribe a parcel of land he already owned near Detroit. Now, all the other off-reservation casinos are 10 miles away, 20 miles away, not 350 miles away. He also agreed to sell the tribe some additional land adjacent to the parcel. Enough land for a new casino--and not too far from Detroit. But the settlement was conditioned on the Interior Department taking the land into trust, a necessary step to its being eligible for an Indian casino. That part didn't work out like they'd planned, so that settlement was eventually scrapped in favor of Plan B, back to the courts in an attempt to get a favorable court ruling to take to Interior. As we know, Plan B also failed. So then came Plan C, which brings us here today. But the three plans are not that different. They all share the same objective.…”