Confluence Partners’ Lamar Whitmer said his group would be open to such negotiations. In his view, Whitmer said lingering issues on the bill come down to the $65 million the tribe would be required to invest in roads and utilities to the Escalade site and a noncompete clause that prohibits the tribe from authorizing or establishing competing businesses near the Escalade project and its access road.

For the Escalade's opponents, the idea of any sort of negotiations on the project is a nonstarter, said Renae Yellowhorse, with the group Save the Confluence.

“There is no room to negotiate especially for people in that area,” Yellowhorse said. “Even if they are asked, they will sit on there, but it will be no project. Not there, not here, not anywhere."

She said that at this point her group is confident the Escalade legislation will get voted down if it goes to a vote of the full council in October.

“We just have to keep on the people who vote no and hope they don't change their mind,” she said.

Because of certain provisions in the bill, it requires a two-thirds vote of the council’s 24 delegates to pass. President Russell Begaye has said he opposes the Escalade project, so a two-thirds vote would also be required to pass the legislation if Begaye vetoes the bill.