Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Homeowners fret over plans for Indian casino

EASTON, Pa. -- Retirees Jean and Jack Reese were getting ready to sell their home, a 19th century farmhouse on two secluded acres north of Easton, when they got the startling news: Two Indian tribes were laying claim to their land.

The tribes want to bring gambling to Pennsylvania and say the land -- having been deeded to a tribal chief named Tatamy centuries ago -- is rightfully theirs.

Although the Reeses are not particularly worried about losing their home, they've put their plans on hold.

"How are we going to advertise this house for sale when there's a cloud hanging over the whole area?" said Jean Reese, 71, sitting on the porch of her home along the aptly named Chief Tatamy Lane, a private road in Forks Township.

The Reese's land is part of a contested 315-acre tract in Northampton County that is also the corporate home of Binney & Smith -- maker of Crayola crayons -- and other businesses and private homes.

The Delaware Tribe of Indians of Bartlesville, Okla., and the Delaware Nation of Anadarko, Okla., with a combined 12,000 members, want to pursue casinos, slot machines or other forms of gambling in Pennsylvania.

The tribes say that William Penn's descendants granted the land to Chief Moses Tunda Tatamy in 1733 after he served as an interpreter and that the tract was stolen from them nearly 70 years later.

Some homeowners were in an uproar when the tribes announced their plans in mid-May, but the furor seems to have died down. Many residents said they believe the tribes are merely using the tract as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the state.

Joanne Werkheiser, 50, who lives in a converted schoolhouse in the contested tract, called it "a lot to do about nothing."

Werkheiser's family has farmed 150 acres in the contested tract for generations; her elderly father recently sold most of it to a developer, Nic Zawarski & Sons, who plans a subdivision of luxury homes. Company President Taras Zawarski didn't return a phone call Monday.

"If (Gov. Ed) Rendell hadn't started all this business with gaming, they wouldn't have been interested," Werkheiser said. "They just want a piece of the pie."

Werkheiser said she doesn't believe the tribes are interested in out-of-the-way Forks Township -- nor would they be permitted to build even if they wanted to.

"You can't even put a patio in Forks Township without six inspectors approving it," she said.

Rendell, who wants to legalize slot machines at racetracks to fund his education plan and reduce local taxes, has vowed to oppose any plan to introduce Indian gambling in the state.

For their part, the tribes said their aim is to gain leverage with the state and work out a gambling compact -- not to dispossess homeowners.

"That's never been (the) goal," said Kevin Feeley, a public relations consultant who is representing the Oklahoma tribes. "(They) know what that feels like."

Donna Carroll, who lives with her husband and two small children in a brand-new Colonial across the street from Werkheiser, said their lawyer checked several times to make sure the property was free of any liens.

She said she was "shocked" by the land claim at first but has since come to believe the tribes aren't serious about putting a casino in Forks.

"I was concerned in the beginning but I'm trying not to be now," Carroll, 34, said.

Jean Reese said her only hope -- if the tribes actually decided to pursue the land -- is that they "are fairer than the white man was, and buy it from us instead of taking it."

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