Breaking with more than 15 years of precedent, the department said it will not approve the agreement the tribes signed a month ago with Gov. Ted Kulongoski unless it first rules that the tribes may acquire off-reservation land for their casino.

In previous cases, the federal agency has approved the state/tribal compacts first, then weighed whether to approve an off-reservation site.

Some parties involved in the Warm Springs' proposal for Cascade Locks noted the procedural reversal Friday comes as the department is under increasing pressure to toughen standards for tribes that want to build casinos off of their reservations.

In letters to the tribes and the governor, James E. Cason, an associate deputy secretary of the Interior, acknowledged that the department had previously approved compacts before deciding whether off-reservation land can be acquired for gambling use. But "on closer examination of the statute," the department decided it first must rule on the off-reservation land acquisition.

Cason wrote that this decision doesn't address any other parts of the compact.

"It looks like a bump in the road more than anything," said MardiLyn Saathoff, Kulongoski's general counsel.

The tribes and governor signed the compact in early April. The Interior Department had 45 days to rule on the compact, but it has no time limit on the decision of whether Warm Springs can take the land into trust. Previous decisions have typically taken a year or two.

It will be a tough process. The department has only approved three off-reservation casinos since the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed in 1988.

To approve the off-reservation land acquisition, the department must rule the casino is in the best interests of the tribe and would not harm the surrounding communities. It entails a lengthy environmental review.

Warm Springs spokesman Len Bergstein said the environmental review may move faster than others because the proposed site is on industrial land that has already been studied.

"It's not like we're starting off in a green field in the middle of the forest," Bergstein said.

Under the compact, as much as 17 percent of the casino's gross gambling revenues would go to an independent nonprofit that would mainly provide tuition assistance to Oregonians. The casino also would contribute 6 percent of its net income to a charitable fund for the Cascade Locks area.

"The Department is supportive of the efforts of the Tribes and the Governor to discuss Indian gaming," Cason wrote. "The Department is encouraged by the prospects that there is a foundation for mutual agreement on these issues at some point in the future."

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., a supporter of the plan whose district includes the proposed casino, said the department's move only changes the order of the process.

"It represents a very recent change in federal policy that differs from how the Department had been advising the state and the Tribes to order their requests," Walden said in a written statement. "Frankly, this procedural change seems to track more closely with the requirement of federal Indian gaming law."

More scrutiny

Off-reservation casinos are under increasing scrutiny. They have been the subject of congressional hearings this year. And a draft bill from House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., would change the approval process.

Some legislators have become involved in individual proposals. U.S. Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton opposing the Warm Springs proposal. And Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced a bill that would require the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians to follow the federal approval process for a Northern California casino, overriding an exemption that Congress passed for the tribe in 2000.

Dan Lavey, a spokesman for a coalition of groups opposing the proposed Cascade Locks casino, said the decision showed that the Interior Department was going to move carefully in reviewing the project in the wake of a "growing backlash nationally against off-reservation casinos."

Friday's decision "is bad news for those who want a gorge casino," Lavey said , "but is it the end of the debate? No."

13 groups in opposition

Lavey, a Portland political consultant, is working with a coalition that includes 13 groups opposed to the casino project.

They include environmental groups concerned about the effect on the gorge and the Grand Ronde Indians, who operate a competing casino, Spirit Mountain, southwest of Portland.

The group also includes a conservative Christian group, the Oregon Family Council, that is opposed to gambling as well as the Oregon Restaurant Association, which represents many state Lottery retailers.

Lavey said the group, Coalition for Oregon's Future, expected Norton to approve the compact. The fact that she did not "reflects this concern" about the impact of off-reservation gambling, he said, which "far exceeds the intent of Congress" when it first passed.