A confidential proposal tucked in a Washington County court file suggests that an arm of the Narragansett Indian tribe has not given up the hope of establishing a destination casino in Rhode Island.

The document shows that the tribe’s Historic Preservation Office actively sought investors last fall for a $1-billion casino to be built on yet-to-be acquired land that could be taken into trust by the federal government on behalf of the Narragansetts.

In the bid solicitation, the preservation office asked interested parties to submit letters of intent by last Nov. 12 and to wire $2 million that would be held in escrow to an account in Bridgeport, Conn.

One investor of among five or six who reviewed the solicitation responded to it, but did not submit a letter of intent or wire money, Tribal Preservation Officer John Brown said this week.

“This is something we were looking into,” Brown said. “It went as far as it could go.”

He characterized the solicitation as mere speculation, undercut by a 2006 federal court ruling that found the state can enforce its laws on the tribe’s 1,800 acres.

“Nobody is going to touch the Narragansett Indian tribe,” Brown said, “until it’s made clear there is a possibility the Narragansett Indian tribe” has the right to pursue gambling.

The solicitation describes a ripe New England potential gambling market of $5 billion and growing, a market that boasts the country’s highest per-capita income and second-highest population density. It envisions a resort with 1,500 hotel rooms, 6,000 slot machines and 300 tables, a gaming destination that rivals the world’s finest.

“Even using conservative estimates, due to the twin blessings of geography and timing, the Narragansett Tribe is poised to become a major player in the New England casino market,” it reads.

Land would need to be acquired that would then have to be taken into trust on behalf of the tribe by the U.S. Secretary of Interior.

The solicitation summarizes the tribe’s legal authority to operate gambling under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, saying eligible land could be adjacent to the tribe’s recognized reservation, be an initial reservation or represent the restoration of historic lands of a federally recognized tribe such as the Narragansetts.

UNDER A LAW introduced by the late U.S. Sen. John Chafee in 1996, the tribe cannot build a casino on its 1,800 acres without General Assembly and voter approval. The measure closed a loophole created by the 1978 settlement that gave the tribe that land.The solicitation says a July 2007 federal appeals court decision regarding 31 acres on Kings Factory Road in Charlestown affirmed the tribe’s right to acquire new land and have it placed into unrestricted trust. Trust status would put that land, unlike the other 1,800 acres, under federal and tribal control. The state appealed and the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case this fall.

“The tribe is no longer at the mercy of the state legislature to determine if it should have a casino,” the document reads. “The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act now potentially applies to any lands placed in trust for the tribe other than Settlement Act lands.”

Once the land is placed into trust, the tribe would need to enter into a compact with the state regarding how the gambling would be conducted.

“The Narragansetts are the only federally recognized Indian tribe in the country that have expressed a desire to conduct gaming who have been prevented from doing so by the politicians in the state,” the solicitation reads. Gambling at Twin River and Newport Grand “is proof their opposition is not about philosophical opposition to gambling, but rather an exercise of political power for the benefits of special interests.”

LABELED “PROPRIETARY and confidential,” the bid solicitation is included in the documents for a lawsuit filed by one of the tribe’s previous casino partners, Capital Gaming International Inc. Capital Gaming is seeking $10 million from the tribe for its casino effort in the late 1990s.

Capital Gaming’s lawyers, Ralph R. Liguori and Brian D. Gross, of Cooley Manion Jones LLP, did not return repeated phone calls to the firm’s Providence office seeking comment about the case and the source of the bid solicitation.

Brown said the appearance of the solicitation in the court file is evidence that the investor who expressed interest in the deal had breached a confidentiality agreement with the preservation office. Brown would not name that entity.

He also refused to provide information about EAC Capital Partners LLC, the New York City limited-liability corporation whose name is on the undated solicitation. EAC was not listed in the phone directory or the corporations database kept by New York’s Secretary of State’s office.

BROWN, WHO RUNS the tribe’s historic preservation office and serves as the medicine-man-in-training, said the bid solicitation was part of a process he began in 2001 to restore the federal Indian gambling rights the tribe had lost under the so-called Chafee amendment.

During this period, the tribe also engaged in a series of efforts, in partnership with Harrah’s Entertainment and other gambling interests, to get legislative and voter approval for a casino in Rhode Island.

Brown’s preservation office worked separately, as a “political subdivision of the tribe,” he said, because the tribal council and Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas were bound by contracts with Harrah’s and the others to work on winning state approval for gambling. Brown is also a tribal council member, but said he pursued the matter as the historic preservation officer.

“I don’t have the authority to bind the Narragansett Indian tribe to any agreements,” Brown said. “In other words, I could do all the speculation in the world.”

THOMAS THIS WEEK denied knowledge of the bid solicitation, saying he had “signed nothing.”

“If nothing’s been signed by the chief sachem, you can start a fire in the wood stove with it,” Thomas said, adding “that under the [tribal] constitution, I sign all documents.”

In addition, he said, “I can assure you that we are not pursuing gaming.”

The document details the tribal preservation office’s relationship to the tribe, calling it an independent political subdivision that had been delegated the authority to oversee the development of “on-reservation gaming” by a tribal council resolution. Brown said he did not recall the resolution referenced in the solicitation, but said it’s “probably out there.”

“If a resolution passed, it passed a long time ago,” he said. He added: “Whatever I do, in the final analysis, is for the Narragansett people.”

kmulvane@projo.com