A public meeting on a proposed border-area casino is scheduled for April 4

in the southern New Mexico town of Deming west of Las Cruces. The event will
focus on plans by Oklahoma's Fort Sill Apaches to establish a gaming palace
on a new reservation in Luna County bordering Mexico.  

According to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, Luna County
has the highest percentage of joblessness in the state, with an official
unemployment rate of 20.7 percent calculated as of February 2012.

The Fort Sill Apaches are descendants of the Chiricahua and Warm Springs
bands that historically inhabited southern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona
and northern Mexico before their forced removal by the U.S. government to
Florida and then Oklahoma after 1886. Led by Cochise, Victorio and other
noted leaders, the Apaches fiercely resisted encroachments on their lands by
Spain, Mexico and the U.S.

After a long historic struggle that touched the U.S. Supreme Court, the Fort
Sill people were federally-recognized as a tribe and given permission to
establish a reservation in New Mexico. In recent years, the 685-member tribe
began acquiring land for a reservation at Akela Flats east of Deming.

In comments to the press last fall, Ft. Sill Chairman Jeff Houser said a
casino would provide employ jobs for returning tribal members, about half of
whom currently live outside Oklahoma.

"We look forward to the day when our tribal sovereignty here is also fully
recognized and we are equal to our fellow New Mexico sovereign tribes and
pueblos," Houser was quoted.

This week's public meeting is legally required under the Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act, and is slated to include the presentation of an
environmental impact statement as mandated by the National Environmental
Policy Act. Houser said the public is welcome to provide input. Following
the meeting, the proposed casino still must gain approval by the U.S.
Interior Department and New Mexico's governor before opening its doors to
the public.

Last year, the Interior Department rejected  a bid by New Mexico's Jemez
Pueblo to open a casino  in Anthony, New Mexico, another small town with
high unemployment located just west of El Paso, Texas, and near the Mexican
border. Situated northeast of El Paso, New Mexico's Mescalero Apaches
currently operate a casino that attracts customers from the borderland.

Although the proposed Deming-area casino is located in a sparsely-populated
county, it is a short drive from the growing metropolitan area of El
Paso-Ciudad Juarez-Las Cruces.  

The Fort Sill Apache public meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. on
Wednesday, April 4, at the Mimbres Valley Special Events Center in Deming.

Sources: Kob.com, March 31, 2012. Deming Headlight, March 29, 2012.
Associated Press,  November 23, 2011. El Paso Times/Las Cruces Sun News,
September 2, 2011. Article by Diana M. Alba.