Governor Schwarzenegger has weighed in against one of the Indian tribes attempting to build a casino in the Bay Area, with his advisers arguing that the project would “offend” the state’s public policy.

The governor’s office has released a letter sent late last week to the regional director of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, in regards to a proposal from the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians to build a casino near the city of Richmond.

The Scotts Valley tribe is one of four tribes that wants to bring a casino to the urban areas surrounding the San Francisco Bay. And three of those tribes– Scotts Valley, the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians and the Lower Lake Rancheria Koi Nation– are also trying to get non-tribal land placed into federal trust. The fourth tribe, the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians, has ended (for now) its effort at a casino in the city of San Pablo.

The letter from the governor’s legal affairs secretary, Peter Siggins, argues that any more casino projects in the Bay Area would run counter to the intent of 2000’s Proposition 1A, which Siggins says was designed to allow gaming only on “remote” Indian lands.

At the very least, the letter reaffirms the deal that Schwarzenegger struck with the Lytton tribe last summer (although it seems as though the governor and Siggins couldn’t resist another jab at the congressional action Schwarzenegger says forced him to negotiate the Lytton deal in the first place).

That agreement, even though it went nowhere in the Legislature, gave the Lyttons a “zone of exclusivity” for Bay Area gaming… a zone that would exclude the Scotts Valley (Richmond), Guidiville (Richmond’s Point Molate), and Lower Lake (Oakland) projects.

It’s already rare when federal officials agree to take new land into trust for a tribe to build a casino… and it probably doesn’t help a tribe when a governor weighs in against the request.