By Chris Thew
Chronicle staff

     The Colville Business Council ordered all work stopped on July 15 at the proposed Omak casino after human remains were discovered at the site.
     "We have no choice but to stop the excavation and all construction at the site," Colville Business Council chair Jeanne Jerred said. "Nothing is more important than the protection of our sacred sites. We require others to adhere to our laws and regulations to protect archaeological and prehistoric sites, and we can do no less ourselves."
     The order also requires Colville Tribal Enterprise Corporation, which operates the tribes' three casinos, to search for an alternative site for the casino.
     "We hope that CTEC will be able to find an alternative site in the very near future," Jerred said. "This is simply a matter of protecting and preserving our culture, history and traditions as our first priority."
     The $24 million, 58,000-square-foot casino on reservation land in east Omak next to Highway 97, would have been the tribe's largest and first permanent casino, according to Michelle Campobasso, a spokeswoman with CTEC. The casino was scheduled to open in 2009.
     Jerred said that given the atmosphere of the council and the order for CTEC to find another site, repatriation of the remains to another location to allow for construction of the casino is not an option.
     “I do not think it is any longer an option to remain there,” Jerred said. “The process will need to be started again.”