TULSA, Okla. – Officials with the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Oklahoma have rescheduled a May 9 hearing regarding United Keetoowah Band gaming operations within the Cherokee Nation’s jurisdiction to July 25.
CN Attorney General Todd Hembree said District Judge Gregory Frizzell’s office notified him, the UKB and the Department of Interior stating that the case was continued until July.
“No party filed a motion to continue, this was done on his (Frizzell) accord. I’m sure this was done because of his busy schedule,” Hembree said.
The case involves whether the UKB can legally operate a casino within the Nation’s jurisdictional area in northeast Oklahoma. For years, the UKB operated a casino on a 2-acre tract of land in Tahlequah, the capital city to both tribes, without a compact with the state government or oversight from the National Indian Gaming Commission.
The NIGC in 2000 ruled that the Keetoowah Cherokee Casino wasn’t on “Indian land” as defined in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The land is owned in fee by the UKB and located at 2450 S. Muskogee Ave.
According to the IGRA, a tribe may only game on eligible lands within the limits of its jurisdiction held in trust by the United States.
Following the NIGC ruling, the UKB obtained an injunction from then-Cherokee County District Judge John Garrett that kept state law enforcement from imposing gaming law violations on the casino. Garrett later was named to the UKB Supreme Court and now serves on the CN Supreme Court.
In 2012, UKB and Oklahoma officials signed an agreement that required the UKB to pay at least $2 million to the state and obtain trust land for the casino by July 30, 2012, or face closure. Hours before the deadline to cease gaming, the UKB received word from the Interior that it would grant the casino land trust status.
Hembree filed an appeal on Sept. 7, 2012, in federal court against the Interior’s decision stating that the CN has “exclusive jurisdiction over” the 14 counties that make up its boundaries.
According to the UKB/state agreement, if the casino’s land was not in trust one year after the DOI decided to grant trust status, the UKB would cease gaming until the land was taken into trust and the NIGC permitted gaming on it.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Aug. 26, 2013, denied the UKB’s motion for a stay on an injunction that prevented the Interior from granting trust land for the casino. Without the stay, the UKB was forced to close the casino’s doors four days later as part of an agreement the UKB made with the state.
Before the casino closed, Principal Chief Bill John Baker offered the UKB two compromises that would allow the band to retain its casino operations and continue employing those working for both the UKB administration and casino.
The first was for the Interior to take the casino land into trust on behalf of the CN and for the CN to sign a 99-year lease agreement with UKB, with an automatic renewal clause, allowing the UKB to continue gaming operations. Through that agreement, the UKB would have retained the profits, maintained its employment base and gaming would not have ceased at its casino.
The second would have allowed the UKB to build a gaming facility on land the CN has in trust at the intersection of Highways 82 and 62, south of Tahlequah. Under that option, the Nation would have signed a 99-year renewable lease for the UKB to conduct a comparable gaming operation in size and number of machines on that land.
Neither offer was accepted by UKB officials.
Hembree said he and his office are still “very confident” in their position that the CN has sole jurisdiction of the 14-county area in which both tribes reside.
“Regarding whether the UKB can acquire land into trust within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Cherokee Nation,” he said, “the law and the historical facts are on our side and we have every reason to believe the Court will find in our favor.”
When contacted by the Cherokee Phoenix regarding comment on the postponement, UKB officials said they had no comment at that time.
