01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, May 31, 2007

By Katie Mulvaney

Journal Staff Writer

After meeting with U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin yesterday, Charlestown officials expressed confidence that he will support their effort to prevent a casino from being built in their town.

Town leaders oppose efforts by the Narragansett Indian Tribe to overturn a federal law that bars their access to full Indian gaming privileges on their land.

“I don’t think we need to worry about [Langevin],” Town Council President Katharine H. Waterman said shortly after the meeting in Langevin’s Warwick office.

Waterman, Vice President Harriet A. Allen, and Town Administrator Edward M. Barrett met with Langevin along with the town’s solicitor on Indian affairs, Joseph S. Larisa Jr.

The Town Council hopes to counter lobbying by the tribe to repeal the 1996 change — known as the Chafee amendment — in the federal Indian gambling law that put the tribe on the same footing as any other would-be casino developer in the state.

“We gave them impassioned pleas on the basis of the environment and the quality of life in South County,” Waterman said of any measures that would ease the way for the tribe to build a casino on its land in Charlestown.

Langevin appeared receptive to those concerns, as well as others raised immediately afterward in a meeting with members of the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition. RISC is a South County-based political advocacy group that has collected more than 1,700 names on an online petition opposing any changes to the law.

“Certainly, I share a lot of their concerns,” said Langevin, a long-standing casino opponent.

Langevin said he was particularly attuned to Rhode Island voters’ overwhelming rejection in November of the tribe’s proposal to change the state Constitution to allow the Narragansetts to build a casino in West Warwick with Harrah’s Entertainment.

“I wouldn’t want to do anything that would circumvent that vote,” which, he said, repealing the 1996 amendment would essentially do.

The late Sen. John H. Chafee sponsored the amendment that barred the tribe from autonomously establishing a casino on its lands. Chafee said the move closed a loophole created by the federal Indian gambling law, but opponents have argued that it stripped the Narragansetts of their rights.

The town and RISC stepped up lobbying efforts last month after learning that lawyers for the tribe were circulating draft bills that would repeal the Chafee amendment or strike language from federal laws that place the Narragansetts’ 1,800 acres under Rhode Island criminal and civil laws.

Langevin said he objects to any proposals to alter the 1978 settlement reached regarding the tribe’s lands. Under its terms, which became federal law, the tribe agreed that state civil and criminal jurisdiction would apply on the land.

“I think the agreement between the state and the tribe has served both sides well,” Langevin said.

Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas met with U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy on May 10. Kennedy said that he cautioned the tribe against seeking a repeal of the Chafee amendment and urged it to find an approach that would be supported unanimiously by the state’s ongressional delegation.

Kennedy said he supports full sovereignty for the tribe “in principle,” including the repeal of the amendment. But, he said, in practice, repealing the law would be “politically untenable” because the rest of the state’s leaders oppose it.

All three of Kennedy’s colleagues — Langevin and Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse — have publicly objected to changing the law.

Michael Anderson, a lawyer with the Washington, D.C., firm AndersonTuell that has been representing the Narragansetts, referred all comments to the tribe. Thomas did not return a phone call yesterday.

Waterman said that the town plans to send Reed, Whitehouse and Kennedy letters expressing its views. RISC members hope to arrange meetings with them.

Robert Brink, a lawyer and Virginia legislator representing RISC at no cost, said the group felt reassured by Langevin’s response yesterday.

“I think it’s clear he understands the issues and concerns of the people in his district and I’m confident he’ll uphold those interests,” said Brink, whose family has summered in Charlestown for 30 years.

Langevin said he was particularly attuned

to Rhode Island voters’ overwhelming rejection

in November of the tribe’s proposal to change

the state Constitution to allow the Narragansetts

to build a casino in West Warwick.

kmulvane@projo.com