Mar. 19--DETROIT -- The efforts of two Michigan tribes to settle land claims in exchange for off-reservation casino sites have raised a dust storm of opposition from other tribes and one of the giants of the gaming world -- and face an uphill battle in Congress.

The House Natural Resources Committee approved House Bills 2176 and 4115 Feb. 12. The bills would settle land claims filed by the Bay Mills Indian Community of Brimley, Mich., and the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, of Sault Ste. Marie, in exchange for off-reservation casino properties.

The Bay Mills and Sault Chippewa were one tribe until around 35 years ago, when the Sault Chippewa broke away. Both bills claim that the federal government wrongfully sold off Charlotte Beach, a property of around 110 acres in Chippewa County in Michigan's eastern Upper Peninsula, to non-Indians a day after signing an 1855 treaty setting the land aside for the tribe.

"I strongly and respectfully urge you to consider this settlement not through the lens of Indian gaming, but rather in the context of the long and well-documented history of the wrong done to my people, and in the context of the overall wisdom of a settlement crafted to create the greatest good for the most people," Bay Mills President Jeffrey D. Parker said at a Feb. 6 Natural Resources Committee hearing.

Bay Mills wants to give up its Charlotte Beach claim for a Port Huron casino site. The Sault Chippewa wants to swap its Charlotte Beach claim for a casino in Romulus, but the plans have drawn fire from tribes, legislators and big business.

In late January, households across Michigan received fear-mongering fliers saying, "Washington Poised to Force Two New Casinos on Michigan Families. Only You Can Stop the Special Interests," according to a Feb. 28 report in Business Week.

Although the flier was sent from a "grass-roots" group called Gambling Watch, it turned out that the group was a front for the mother of all special gambling interests, MGM Mirage -- one of the world's biggest gaming companies, the report said. The connection between MGM Mirage and Gambling Watch was first reported in Port Huron's Times Herald.

MGM Mirage, of Las Vegas, opened its new $800 million MGM Grand in downtown Detroit last October and openly admitted it is trying to block competition.

"We've made no secret of where we are on this," said Alan Feldman, senior vice president for public affairs at MGM Mirage.

Parker was appalled.

"I was shocked and dismayed that [MGM] would sink to that level," he told Business Week.

The Sault have five casinos on reservation lands scattered throughout the eastern part of the Upper Peninsula, and own a majority interest in the Greektown Casino in Detroit, a commercial operations.

Bay Mills operates two casinos on its reservation.

The House bills are the latest attempt to settle agreements former Gov. John Engler reached in 2002 in separate land claim settlements in which each tribe agreed to relinquish all claims to the now-populated Charlotte Beach lands in exchange for casino lands.

The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe opposes the plan on the ground that the proposed casino lands are in its aboriginal territory. The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians says the land claim doesn't qualify for a land settlement under the 1790 Non-Intercourse Act and should instead be litigated in court.

Both tribes say the land swap is an end run around a state compact provision that requires any Michigan tribe that conducts off-reservation gaming to share its revenues.

At the February hearing, Saginaw Chippewa Chief Fred Cantu said proposed bills were "a scam from the start so these tribes could get casinos 350 miles from their reservations."

Cantu said the Port Huron and Romulus properties are Saginaw Chippewa ancestral lands that were sold to the federal government, and should not now be given to other tribes for casinos.

John Petoskey, attorney for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, said the land claims should be litigated in court.

"We're not opposed to the economic development Bay Mills and Sault Ste. Marie are doing. We're saying if they want to litigate the land claim, they should litigate it in court. This is not a Non Intercourse claim," Petoskey said.

And it's not valid under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act's exceptions for off-reservation gaming, either, the tribes say.

In a 1993 gaming compact with the state, seven federally recognized tribes, including the Sault Chippewa and Bay Mills, agreed that no tribe could conduct off-reservation gaming unless all the tribes agreed to a revenue sharing plan.

Claiming an IGRA exception is an attempt "to circumvent this compact provision by coming to Congress to settle a land claim that has never been validated," Cantu said.

The bills were scheduled to be heard at the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, where committee chairman Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, opposes the proposed casinos in Port Huron and Romulus. The bills are expected to meet further opposition when they reach the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, who is running for re-election this fall, has endorsed the Port Huron casino but has remained silent on the Romulus facility.

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