Under Trump, Catawba tribe got NC land for casino. A bill in Congress would confirm it.
The Catawba Indian Nation’s nearly decade-long fight to build a casino in Kings Mountain moved another step closer to its end Wednesday as a U.S. House panel approved the tribe’s receipt of the land.
The Interior Department placed more than 16 acres of land in Cleveland County into a trust for the Catawba, a federally recognized tribe based in Rock Hill, S.C. It is on that land that Catawba tribe plans to build the $273 million Two Kings Casino Resort off Interstate 85 in Kings Mountain, the first part of which is planned to open this fall. The site is about 35 miles west of Charlotte.
South Carolina does not allow gambling, which led the Catawba tribe to seek out the land in North Carolina, where it claims historic ties. A provision in the 1993 agreement that gave the Catawba federal recognition also gave the tribe “service area” in six North Carolina counties, including Mecklenburg and Cleveland.
The plan has gained considerable traction since it was first introduced to stiff opposition in 2013 — and the latest shift was evident Wednesday.
A bill that would ratify the action taken by Tara Sweeney, the Trump administration’s assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, giving it the force of law, passed the House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday. Several representatives from South Carolina (Reps. James Clyburn, Joe Wilson and William Timmons) and North Carolina (Reps. David Price and G.K. Butterfield) sponsored the bill, known as the Catawba Indian Nation Lands Act.
It passed out of the committee without a recorded vote and would need to be passed by the full House as well as the Senate and be signed by President Joe Biden to become law.
The Catawba broke ground on the facility in July 2020. In the months since, the effort has gained momentum.
In January, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper approved a gaming compact with the tribe — a key step in the process. In April, a federal judge rejected a challenge from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which operates the only two casinos in North Carolina, located in Cherokee and Murphy.
A casino in Kings Mountain could impact the Eastern Band’s casinos.
North Carolina Republican Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis support the land transfer and the Catawba’s plans. Burr, Tillis and South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced legislation in 2019 backing the Interior Department’s ability to place the land in a trust.
When the Catawba first proposed obtaining the land and building gambling facilities in 2013 it was opposed by many powerful North Carolina politicians.
Cooper, a Democrat who was attorney general at the time and then-Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican who is now running for U.S. Senate, both opposed it. State lawmakers, including Tillis and Phil Berger, the leaders of the House and Senate at the time, were also against the project at that time.
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