Thanks to casino earnings, the fast-growing Pascua
Yaqui Tribe has spent $3 million to buy a 5,300-acre cattle ranch.
The purchase expands the tribe’s land base to 6,300
acres.
Tribal Chairman Benito Valencia said he
would not rule out building a second casino on the ranch. Under
gaming compacts with Arizona, however, tribes cannot put casinos
outside their original reservation boundaries; the newly purchased
ranch is eight miles from tribal headquarters. Asked whether he
would try to change that rule, Valencia said, “That remains to be
seen.”
The ranch purchase puts to work some of
the revenues that have flowed into tribal coffers since the Yaquis
opened Casino of the Sun in 1994. The tribe bought the Tortuga
Ranch March 12 from Sonoita-area rancher John Donaldson. He has run
cattle both on his land and on 26,000 acres of state and federal
land.
The driving force behind the purchase was
the tribe’s growing membership, officials said. It is now nearly
13,000, and another 5,000 prospective members have applications
pending. The tribe has grown about 2.5 percent annually since the
federal government liberalized enrollment procedures in the early
1990s.
*Tony Davis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Tribe buys a ranch.
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