S. Ore. tribal group eyes Willamette tract

8/25/2008 The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Southern Oregon tribe and a landowner in the rich Willamette Valley farm region called French Prairie are talking about a deal that could make a large tract part of tribal territory — but both sides insist a casino is not in the cards.

The landscape that stretches south of the Willamette River from Wilsonville to Salem has long figured in Oregon land-use decisions.

When legislators saw hundreds of houses being built south of the river in the late 1960s and early 1970s for the Charbonneau development they quickly enacted sweeping statewide laws to protect prime farm and forestland.

Chris Maletis acknowledges that the Chiloquin-based Klamath Tribes are working to acquire as trust land acreage near his Langdon Farms Golf Course for eventual conversion to commercial and perhaps industrial uses, but not a casino.

Tribal Chairman Joseph Kirk has sent a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs saying that, whatever else the tribe may have in mind for the property, it does not intend to build a casino.

That hasn't convinced some, who worry that the agricultural core of Oregon will be changed forever.

"If you are looking at either a 400-acre trucking distribution center or a huge casino there, the options are between horrendous and outrageous," said Ben Williams, spokesman for Friends of French Prairie. "Pick your poison: It's either cyanide or arsenic."

Development opponents plan a meeting Thursday at a local fire hall on what they call "a casino at Langdon Farms."

In May, after a meeting with tribal representatives, bureau officials sent a letter spelling out what the tribe needed to do to take the land around Langdon Farms into trust.

The letter alarmed Williams and others because it promised an expedited process and seemed to indicate the tribe might have little problem taking control of land that is 200 miles from its headquarters.

Mike Kohlhoff, Wilsonville city attorney, produced an opinion saying the bureau had vastly overstated what the tribes could actually do.

Wilsonville Mayor Charlotte Lehan, long an opponent of development south of the river, agreed.

"If they could just buy land anywhere and have it be tribal land," she said, "why not just go right into the heart of Portland and buy the convention center?"