Edward Metcalf
Tribal Council Chairman, Coquille Indian Tribe
On behalf of the Coquille Indian Tribe, I support the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs’ efforts to develop a gaming and recreational facility at Cascade Locks, Oregon. The development of this facility will benefit the economies of local governments, the State of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes, while also breaking new ground in Tribal/State partnerships benefiting the local community.
The Federal government’s long-standing policy has been to promote the self sufficiency of Indian tribes. Targeted economic development, such as this proposed casino, will help the Confederated Tribes and its members become self-sufficient and provide for future generations.
Delores Pigsley
Tribal Council Chairman, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
Our Tribal Council is convinced that the Cascade Locks casino would greatly benefit the Warm Springs Tribes and its tribal members by generating revenue to address pressing social and governmental needs on the reservation and assisting and creating job opportunities both on and off the reservation for tribal members. In fact, it appears to us that the Cascade Locks casino will provide significant benefits not only to the local community but to the State as a whole through the creation of the Warm Springs Tribes/Oregon Benefit Fund. The fund will provide college scholarships to Oregon students to attend Oregon colleges and will fund economic development throughout the state.
We also believe that the Warm Springs Tribe’s proposal is a fitting recognition of the fundamental connection we all have with the Earth. Through its perpetual protection of pristine lands in the Gorge Scenic Area, its sustainable design and construction elements and its funds for habitat enhancements in the Gorge Scenic Area, the Warm Springs project will result in enormous environmental benefits to all Oregonians.
In addition to the many benefits that will flow from this project, we believe that it is altogether fitting that the land at Cascade Locks that has such strong ancestral, cultural and legal ties to Warm Springs people should be taken into trust.
Ron Suppah
Tribal Council Chairman, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
We have been working cooperatively with the local communities and governments of Cascade Locks and Hood River County. While we have land there in the Gorge, east of Hood River, that is already eligible to site a casino on, we are in agreement that the site at Cascade Locks in the Port’s Industrial Park is the best place to locate it. Even the environmentalists agreed.
In our Compact agreement with the State of Oregon, the biggest negotiating point was the 17% revenue sharing, which will provide over $850 million over the next 25 years so that Oregonians can attend Oregon colleges and universities. Then, there will also be more $50 million to fund habitat restoration for salmon in the Gorge, which is critically important to the Tribes, but also is very important to the local economies.
Bob Willoughby
City Manager of Cascade Locks
The resort/casino in Cascade Locks is really about two communities with one shared vision. We’re a former mill town that has been struggling to hang on economically for more than 30 years and most of our community infrastructure is gone. Our high school is threatened with closure because of declining enrollment. More than 50% of the Warm Springs people are unemployed. One-third of their children live in poverty. This shared vision is about economic development and jobs. It’s about hope. For two struggling communities, it’s about the future!
The profile and design of this building will fit in the Gorge and the Scenic Area much better than the alternatives that we could put on the proposed site in the Port’s Industrial Park. It’s possible to preserve the scenic part of the Gorge, including the site east of Hood River, and put a non-polluting tourism industry into our Industrial Park. This option is a lot better than putting a smoke stack industry in Cascade Locks. The project site is not scenic. It’s not environmentally sensitive. It’s an industrial park. It’s a former mill site in an area designated by the Scenic Act for economic development. This compromise is good for the Gorge, for the state of Oregon, for our community, for all the communities around us, and it’s good for the Warm Springs. It’s a win, win, win, win, win proposition!
Joe Moses
Paiute Chief, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
We debated whether the Tribes even wanted to have gambling. If there were other things that would provide the economic stability that we need, then we would be doing them. Right now though, it is the only thing we have left. We simply don’t have enough revenue coming in from our other Tribal Enterprises to provide the necessary services for our people. Cascade Locks is also trying to take care of the people in their community. In the end, building our resort-casino in Cascade Locks will be a Win-Win for both of our communities.
Karen Peck
CLIK, Parks & Recreation, School bus driver, Parent, Grandparent
I am a long-time resident of Cascade Locks. I am retired but occasionally drive the school bus for the school in Cascade Locks, which is a K thru 12th grade school. I'm also chair person of two local committees, CLIK {Cascade Locks Interested In Kids} and Cascade Locks Parks and Recreation. I'm also the Summer Recreation Program Director/Driver, for 2 months during summer vacation. I see first-hand the results of many parents who must commute an extra two hours to work elsewhere because our local economy just doesn't have employment for them. Our community needs more family-wage jobs so our families can spend more time together and thrive.
The Warm Springs Resort/Casino is a means to an end for the economy for both communities. It will strengthen the future of our communities, bringing many of the services that we have done without for decades. It will be a wonderful day when the residents of our community don't have to drive 40 miles round trip just to do their banking. We have a fine ambulance crew and volunteer fire department here in town but we will all feel safer when we have our own Doctors and medical personnel in Cascade Locks.
Marva Janik
Port of Cascade Locks Commissioner
As a Port Commissioner, I believe the Casino will strengthen our community. It puts land into use that would otherwise continue to sit vacant –or even worse, be used under its current “Heavy Industrial” zoning. The reality is though that the Industrial Park will never be fully utilized until the transportation and utility infrastructure is developed to support it. Unlike any other ‘industry’ that has approached the Port about this site, the Warm Springs Tribe is willing to fix those deficiencies/ These improvements would not only make their own plan for the resort-casino viable, but would also open up the area to other, compatible uses…
This is our opportunity for a much-needed economic transition! Tourism is a perfect fit for the Gorge, which is comprised of urban areas such as ours, as well as the protected Scenic Gorge. The people will always come to visit the beauty of our region anyway, so how can we enhance that experience for them? At the same time, we can make our community as vital as it was 50 years ago, without the boom economy of traditional resource extraction! People can come to our community to learn more about conservation efforts, and what their own role is in a clean Columbia River with vital fish runs and room for recreation.
Joeinne Caldwell
Citizen, Teacher, Port Commissioner, former business owner
Most of us live here in Cascade Locks because we love our town, we love the sense of community, and we appreciate the natural scenic beauty that surrounds us. Our friends, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, have demonstrated their stewardship of the land by living here and caring for this place for more than 10,000 years. Up until they peacefully signed the Treaty of 1855, 150 years ago this year, there were Native Americans living right here on the River where we live today. In our heart we know that they never really left.
As a teacher, I am thrilled to finally be working again in my own community, teaching Kindergarten at the Cascade Locks School. I know first-hand what it’s like to have to commute two hours round-trip each day to get to work. It doesn’t leave much time or energy left for family. I empathize with my students whose parents must make such commutes to support their families and pay taxes that fund the local schools. They do it because they want something better for their children. I see the hopes and dreams of my community in each and every one of my young students. Though it seems so far off when children are only 5 years old, my hopes for my students are that they may grow strong and thrive in the nurturing environment of family, our school, and the entire community. Someday they will graduate from Cascade Locks High School and take advantage of the wonderful scholarship program available to all Oregon students attending Oregon colleges and universities, which were provided for by the Warm Springs’ resort-casino in Cascade Locks.
Tom Cramblett
Sternwheeler Boat Captain
As a life-long resident of Cascade Locks, I have experienced the steady economic decline of my town over the past three decades. Since the enactment of the National Scenic Area here in the Gorge, tourism has been the only major industry that we can engage in. It has been very challenging to find the resources to make this happen, but now with the resort-casino in the Port’s industrial park, we have the opportunity give our local and regional economy the boost that it needs. As a Captain on the Sternwheeler, I come into contact daily with dozens of tourists who bring their families here to Cascade Locks, in the Heart of the Gorge, because it is such a unique and scenic place. The Port is wonderful attraction, with the boat, our gift shop and the museum. But our town just can’t survive if we don’t get more businesses, have more of a variety of activities to draw the tourists here, and give them reasons to stay and spend their money. We can make tourism work, not only to revive our local economy, but also to help care for the Gorge. The Tribes play a critical role in restoring balance to the Gorge. Together with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, we can build up a sustainable tourism economy that functions to strengthen our two communities, as well as restore and protect the vitality of the Gorge.
Rodger Schock
Chair of Hood River County Commission, small business owner
I am unaware of an elected board in this region that that does not approve this proposal. While a gambling facility was not our first choice to strengthen the area’s economy, we have had no luck in bringing jobs to the region otherwise and cannot afford to let our unemployment continue to rank among the nation’s highest. This casino would spur economic development that will help Cascade Locks and the Gorge for years to come. We have built a very strong, cooperative relationship with the Warm Springs and I appreciate the commitment they have shown in developing a plan that is beneficial to their Tribes, our region and the state of Oregon.
Evaline Pratt
Museum at Warm Springs
In my job at the Museum at Warm Springs, we see this cultural institution as playing a key role in helping people understand who the Warm Springs people are and where we came from. The casino in the Gorge will provide fundamental fiscal support for tribal operations, including the Museum, where we maintain cultural assets and programs for Tribal Members, as well as educating the general public. It will enhance the Museum's broad range of programs and capabilities, including the Collections area and the state-of-the-art Archives, and to continue the preservation of our culture, keeping in mind future generations to come.
Roger Freeborn
Former Mayor, small business owner
If the World was run consistent in the way the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs run their Nation we would live in a better World. The Warm Springs People are the most friendly, trustworthy, conscientious, generous, community concerned, caring, peaceful People I have had the good fortune to encounter on this planet and I am proud to think of myself as a Friend of the Tribes. I am more than confident of these people’s integrity and ability of a 10,000 year resume of land stewardship in the Columbia River Gorge Area to welcome them all into my community and together forge the Future of Cascade Locks as the “Jewell of the Gorge”.
Kate Mast
Finance Officer for City of Cascade Locks
As the City of Cascade Locks Finance Officer, I work with the City’s Budget Committee each year to put together a budget that allows for providing necessary levels of service and maintaining minimum levels of operations, while keeping rates as low as possible. It is a real struggle that gets harder every year – we’re fighting a losing battle.
The proposed resort and casino will provide funds to support and enhance City functions, such as emergency services and public safety. It will encourage other economic development and increase our population, spreading the cost of our services over more customers, keeping rates lower. The casino is the only project on the horizon that will turn this situation around for us. Far from threatening to overwhelm us with its impact, the casino, thanks to the generosity of the Warm Springs, will be our salvation.
Debora Lorang
Local Gallery Owner and Artist
This year my husband and I opened a small gallery in Cascade Locks. Our dream has long been to help build an art and cultural center like those found in some of our neighboring communities. We meet artists’ young and old who have been longing to further their artistic endeavors. There is something so very positive about people from such a depressed area wanting to enrich their lives and our communities through art education.
The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs has promised funding for the arts in Cascade Locks. I am working with these people on inter-community projects and know that we share the same vision for our communities. The vision of Cultural Rejuvenation and Healing through Education and the Arts. This is very important to me because I am a parent of two middle school age boys and I want them to grow up in a healthy, thriving community.
Patti Smith
State Representative, District 52
I am convinced that the casino will be a good economic tool for our region and especially Cascade Locks. The region has never been included in any economic recovery plans and as a result has lost jobs. The decline has to stop and I see the Warm Springs partnership with the region of Cascade Locks as a real opportunity to not only protect the Gorge but to address the severe economic conditions.
The Governor has made the right decision in allowing this partnership to progress. This is truly an example of how people of all levels involved can come together to create a vibrant, sustainable economy that not only protects the wonders of the Gorge but also protects the vision of all those that hold this area dear.
Sandra Kelley
Local Business Owner and Environmental Activist
In the process of working together to address environmental concerns and choosing the most appropriate site for the proposed development, friendships have been made. It is clear to me that Warm Springs is both able and anxious to develop this area in a responsible way, saving it from the Heavy Industrial development it was slated for.
Lynae Hansen
Member of Local School Committee
As a parent, I believe the casino will strengthen the future of our community. I think that I speak for many parents when I express my hopes for our children: that they may be raised in a healthy community and one day able to return to our region to become fully employed in jobs that suit their ambitions and dreams.
The jobs that are created by the construction and later the running of a resort/casino will not only provide full-time, year-round employment but will also help our city to build up the infrastructure to support a thriving local economy.
Our community needs more family-wage jobs and full-time employment opportunities so that it can thrive.
Kathy Woosley
Deputy City Recorder, Planning Commission Secretary for the City of Cascade Locks
Working for the City of Cascade Locks for over 10 years and also as the President of the Port Commission, I strongly support this casino in our city. The City of Cascade Locks desperately needs something for economic development and no one else has been knocking at the door. The industrial property is burdened by one access into the property over a railroad track. There aren't any grants available to build an overpass and what other business do you think could afford to build their business and fix the access problem as well? This casino is a very good fit for our community!
Jean Scott McLean
Port Commissioner, Port of Cascade Locks
I grew up in Cascade Locks. I moved away after graduating from high school but my family remained here. Many years later I moved back. I have always been proud of Cascade Locks because the people of the town have not been afraid of doing quite daring things. We formed our own power company rather than buy from PGE. We created a rather large port district years ago but only received $1.80/household in tax revenue. We bought the Bridge of the Gods. We were at one time the smallest city in the country to receive urban renewal funds when we rebuilt our downtown after the freeway bypassed us. We built a sternwheeler when environmentalists thwarted our plans for a tramway. We have our own public TV station and broadband network. We did this because we weren’t afraid of trying.
Now we have the opportunity to band together with the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs to site a resort/casino in our industrial park. We embraced the concept rather than being afraid to align ourselves with the tribes. We saw an opportunity to help ourselves attain some civic projects we would not be able to do otherwise. In the process we found a source of friendship and cooperation that has been a wonderful adventure. Two communities, one vision!