Harris said the tribe is working with banks and investment firms to secure financing for the project. As you may have heard, there’s a major new casino complex coming to the Charlotte area, courtesy of the Catawba Indian Tribe. The agreement calls for payment terms to the state that are similar to North Carolina’s compact with the Cherokee casinos, Harris added. Tribal leaders don’t foresee any special difficulties obtaining federal approval because the agreement with the Cooper administration is “closely modeled after a compact that Interior has approved for another Tribal Nation,” Catawba Nation Tribal Administrator Elizabeth Harris told the newspaper in an email Saturday. In a Catawba Nation news release, Chief Bill Harris called the agreement the key step in bringing economic benefits and thousands of jobs to North Carolina.Ĭooper spokesman Ford Porter confirmed on Saturday that the agreement had been signed and sent to the U.S. “We continue to believe the courts will affirm the illegality of this casino and when that happens, the Catawba agreement will be nothing more than a worthless piece of paper.”
“But this compact changes nothing,” Sneed said in a prepared statement. Principal Chief Richard Sneed of the Eastern Band called Cooper’s signing of the agreement with the Catawbas “disappointing,” The Charlotte Observer reported.
