Obama administration delays action on Wyandotte Nation casino

Tuesday, September 27, 2011  

The Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma will have to wait even longer for a decision on its off-reservation, lawyers for the Obama administration said on Monday.

The tribe acquired 10.5 acres in Park City, Kansas, through a land claim settlement. The law mandates that the Interior Department place the site in trust.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, however, has failed to take action. The tribe's application has been pending since January 2009.

In July, the tribe filed suit in the federal court in Washington, D.C. The Obama administration's response was due yesterday but instead of addressing the main issue -- the delay in the mandatory acquisition of the site -- government attorneys want the case to be transferred to federal court in Kansas and they also want more time to file a followup brief.

"To avoid uneconomically proceeding with case scheduling before the court can address defendant’s motion to transfer, defendant also requests that the current September 26, 2011, deadline to answer or otherwise respond to the complaint be extended to a date ten days after the court’s decision on the motion to transfer," the motion stated.

Generally, land acquired after 1988 can't be used for gaming. But an exception in Section 20(b)(1)(B)(i) of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allows tribes to open casinos in connection with a land claim settlement.

The Wyandotte Nation is only one of two tribes in the history of IGRA to successfully utilize the land claim exception. The tribe operates a casino in downtown Kansas City and won numerous court decisions against the state of Kansas, other Kansas tribes and the federal government.

Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Wyandotte Nation v. Salazar.