Indian Tribe, Developer In The Tug-Of-War Over The Grand Canyon Skywalk

As the muddy Colorado River flows plunging into the depths below, tourists precautionary step on a glass bridge overlooking the edge of the Grand Canyon for an experience that gives the illusion of walking on air.

Some pose with arms outstretched for photos while others ease on a catwalk in a horseshoe that is the subject of a bitter tug-of-war between a tribe whose ancestors Arizona Indian lands, he was built and a developer who has spent at least $ 30 million to build.

The Hualapai small nation in a bold move that could serve as a test of the limits of the sovereign power of Indian tribes over non-members, exercised its right of eminent domain last month to support site management and expel the non-Indian developer.

The dispute over the Skywalk potentially lucrative - all agree could take up to 3000 visitors per day - opposes the sovereign rights of the tribe on a site which it considers its economic lungs against the contractual right to a developer manage the attraction for 25 years and share the profits.

"We made ​​this decision, and we have done for what is in the best interests of the people," said Candida Hunter, 32, Hualapai Tribal Council member who voted to support the Skywalk that the dispute behind, the abandonment of a contract arbitration process mandated.

We have been in negotiations with them, we tried to work with them. It was our last option really, she said of the seizure. We just need to move forward now.  The dispute at the heart of the crisis appears in the center, including the specification that was supposed to provide infrastructure - electricity, water and sewer - for the project, with both sides accusing the other of acting in bad faith.  

What is not in dispute is that the visitor center overlooking the Skywalk - a beautiful building on the edge of the canyon floor to ceiling windows where a restaurant could have been - is nothing but a shell .Construction of the center ceased several years ago - the sides disagree as to why - and the building is vacant and unfinished, with bales of insulation stacked and collecting dust on the bare concrete floor. 

Visitors who drive to the site, often a day trip from Las Vegas, must cross a long-broken windshield stretch on a dirt road. Others by helicopter or plane at the airport handled the booking.  A legal precedent  Board members say the Hualapai unfinished site is a disgrace to the tribe, which approved the project despite objections about the internal structure on land about 30 miles from a central place in history creating Hualapai.

Traditional tribal belief up behind the man on the Hualapai lands.  I think the canyon is a sacred place. The look is at the Hualapai as a church. Why take trash and throw it in the church. I voted against, said Philip Bravo, a former board member. what tribe are there? A building half finished.

Angry against the developer, the tribe has adopted an ordinance last year to create a legal path to nullify the contract the developer through the sovereign right of eminent domain.

Series compensation for entering tribe $ 11.4 million, an amount they say is the fair value of a project that the developer based in Las Vegas, said $ 100 million worth.

 "They took everything. And then the Tribal Court issued an order that we were intruders, if we were still there. You see, it's like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, would not you?" Said Troy Eid, a lawyer for the Grand Canyon Skywalk Development Corporation, which built the Skywalk.

There is little doubt that the tribes can legally seize property for public good, a bit like a state or the federal government. But by entering a non-tangible assets of a non-Indian as a way to escape a contentious case, the tribe may be entered into untested waters.

"I think the first glance the tribe exercises a power they have. They exercise it wisely is a different issue," said Addie Rolnick, an Indian law expert at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.

But there was no clear precedent on the limits of eminent domain. Rolnick said the Supreme Court limited the power of tribes can exercise against non-members in a series of cases starting in the 1970s, and there were signs suggesting the Court believes tribes had no power over non-members.

"But the court never did that, and it certainly did not address the specific issue of eminent domain power," she added.

The developer filed suit in federal court to stop the seizure, arguing the tribe was abusing his power to make an end run around contract mandates that disputes be resolved by arbitration. A final resolution does not seem imminent.

In the meantime, the tribe says it is hoping to get estimates from other developers how it could cost at the end of the visitor center to the specifications of the tribe.

Ted Quasula, general manager of the Development Corporation Skywalk who said the tribe he was shot in the skywalk management as one of their first acts when they took over operations, the seizure fears could hinder future development.

"I had many other Indian reservations that others tell me," What's wrong? 'It sets up $ 30-40 million, whatever it is, and then they want to kick him out? ... It makes us look kind of ungrateful, "said Quasula, himself a member Hualapai tribe.

TOURISM A pillar

The tribe initially accepted the project to ensure its economic future, and has since seen tourism receipts amounted to $ 40 to $ 50 million per year, more than double what they were in 2006, the year before the bridge opened with much fanfare, Council Member Waylon Honga said.

This increase is a testament to the ability of the tribe in recent years to capitalize on its location in the Grand Canyon, even if it is not the direct sales Skywalk. Because of the dispute, the Skywalk revenue was paid into a trust since 2010.

In the town of Peach Springs Hualapai, where tribal members live in modest one-storey matchbox style houses often surrounded by a chain link fence, that extra money from growing tourism resulted in a boom.

Revenue, which the tribe is concerned about protecting, helped build a health service and a brand new juvenile detention center with 30 beds. The tribe hopes to break ground on a clinic of the child by the end of the year, Hunter said.

The money from tourism also helps to fund tuition payments for 81 young heavy Hualapai enrolled in college full time, and funding for meals on wheels programs and a cultural center where young people can study the language of the tribe.

"Tourism is the Hualapai tribe that fact," said Honga. "We do not casino games, we have no wood or petroleum or coal reserves. Everything we do is tourism. We rafts on the Colorado River. We have a restaurant the hotel and we have visits to the Grand Canyon. "

This does not mean that the tribe did not look into other methods of raising awareness of its revenues. But an attempt to casino games in the 1990s failed - the Hualapai reservation is too remote from major cities too near Las Vegas.

The tribe of 2200 members also excluded uranium mines, and his income dried up traditional business in 1979 when Interstate 40 bypassed 66 historic, cutting the city off of revenues from passing travelers, tribal members say. A gas station in town which was once the road is currently vacant.

While some members continue to have lingering concerns about development unhindered by the throat, others are considering the development of the gateway as a conference venue - complete with a luxury hotel, golf course, and perhaps, as a board member Charlie Vaughn suggests, even a revolving cocktail lounge.

Sourc: Reuters

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