WASHINGTON – US Senator Charles Schumer Wednesday picked up the phone and called the new director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and asked Larry EchoHawk to take a fresh look at the application to pursue Native American casinos in Sullivan County.

Former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne rejected a request to place land in trust to build casinos, but the senator asked EchoHawk to take a new look in light of the economic development, jobs and tourism benefits a casino would bring to the Catskills region.

Schumer said EchoHawk said he would take a “top to bottom” review of the BIA’s gaming policy and pledged to take a hard look at the Kempthorne precedent.

The Stockbridge-Munsee plans a casino in the Town of Thompson and the St. Regis Mohawks wanted to build at Monticello Raceway.