During the event, community members signed a beam that would be used in the casino’s construction, ceremonially dug into the earth and brought forward small mementos to bury on the casino site. Long ago, members of the Cowlitz buried tokens in the ground upon establishing a new village, tribal spiritual leaders said.
The casino-resort is expected to open to the public in the spring of 2017. When construction is completed, the project will feature a 100,000-square-foot gaming floor — with 2,500 slot machines, 75 gaming tables, 60 high-limit slot machines and five high-limit tables — multiple restaurants and meeting spaces.
Construction will include a new Interstate 5 interchange at Exit 16. A concert venue also is in the works, tribal leaders said Sunday.
Friedmutter Group architects, who designed the casino, described its look as “organic contemporary.” They said it will tastefully infuse the casino with elements of Cowlitz culture, including imagery of a blunt-nosed canoe, camas flowers, woven hats and salmon.
Several groups that did not want a casino built on the reservation have sued the Cowlitz because they question the Cowlitz peoples’ ties to the area and believe the tribe is interested in the property only for its proximity to Portland. They did not request an injunction to block the casino’s construction.
The plaintiffs, including the city of Vancouver, Clark County, the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, Citizens Against Reservation Shopping — a group that includes Columbian Publisher Scott Campbell — and the owners and operators of La Center’s cardrooms, are appealing U.S. District Court Judge Barbara J. Rothstein’s decision in December 2014 to dismiss the lawsuit.
After many struggles, Sunday was a historic day for the tribe, speakers at the ceremony said. The project opens a new chapter, one that includes jobs, prosperity and self-reliance for their tribe, they said.
“We are the continuous Cowlitz. We are the forever people,” spiritual leader Tanna Engdahl said. “We are here, we are home and we are forever.”
