The Cowlitz prevailed in the case, but opponents appealed the ruling.

But the project’s path to completion hasn’t been a smooth one.Ĭonstruction on the facility was abuzz Monday despite an ongoing appeal in a lawsuit which contends the federal government wrongly approved a reservation for the Cowlitz Tribe. The 368,000-square-foot project is slated to open next spring.

“We stand on our shoulders of our ancestors to carry this project forward to completion,” he said. Bill Iyall, Cowlitz tribal chairman, said that the partnership with the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut goes back more than a decade, but that the effort to establish land and an economic base for the Cowlitz people was a culmination of more than a century of effort.