Federal agencies oppose tribes' challenge to California casino project

The U.S. Department of the Interior and other federal agencies have urged a D.C. federal judge to deny two tribes' request to block a proposed casino-hotel complex on trust land in Shasta County, California. The Wintu Tribe and Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians, alongside a local nonprofit, argue the project threatens culturally significant land, including historical Wintu villages and a massacre site. The agencies contend the tribes' complaint, filed seven months after the land was taken into trust, is untimely and lacks sufficient grounds. A decision is pending in the U.S. District Court.