The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation of Kansas met with officials in DeKalb County, Illinois, to talk about the tribe's disputed plans for gaming.
The tribe bought 128 acres within its ancestral 1,200-acre reservation. The tribe wants to open a Class II facility but county officials aren't convinced of the legality of the site.
The tribe hired Michael Rosetti, who was an aide to former Interior secretary Gale Norton, to press its case. Rosetti said the Interior Department -- during the Clinton administration -- determined the reservation still exists.
“The federal government does not repeat itself,” he told county officials, The Dekalb Daily Chronicle reported. “They're going to say, ‘We already answered this. Don't ask questions that don't need an answer.' Then it's going to go to the bottom of a pile somewhere and maybe we'll get a response in five years.”
The tribe wants to enter into an intergovernmental agreement to address gaming and other issues.
Get the Story:Tribe wants to get ball rolling on bingo parlor
