Cherokee Nation’s attorney general says he’ll appeal BIA decision to keep rival casino open
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 31, 2012 – 6:24 pm EDT
TULSA, Okla. — The Cherokee Nation’s attorney general said Tuesday he’ll appeal a federal decision to place casino land of a rival tribe into trust, a move that recognizes the parcel as Indian land.
Attorney General Todd Hembree said Monday’s decision by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to place roughly two acres into trust is not supported by law.
The decision keeps the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees’ namesake casino open in Tahlequah for at least another year, when the 15,000-member tribe must have the land placed in a final trust status after any appeals have been settled. The BIA granted the status Monday after deciding that the Cherokees and Keetoowah Band share the same former reservation land.
“This decision is everything to us,” said UKB spokesman Thomas Jordan. “Instead of looking over our shoulder, we’re moving ahead.”
The Keetoowahs, who trace their history to Cherokees who settled in Indian Territory in the 1820s, have fought for decades over the Keetoowah Cherokee Casino, which opened in 1986. The Cherokee Nation has argued the casino is illegal.
“Time after time, courts have held it is the Cherokee Nation, and no other tribe, that has jurisdiction over this land,” Hembree said in a statement Tuesday. “I look forward to appealing this decision. It is fraught with legal misconceptions.”
A federal judge had given the tribe until Tuesday to win the status. In June, the tribe reached an agreement with Oklahoma’s attorney general in which the tribe would pay $2 million in damages and agree to close the casino if it hadn’t obtained federal trust status.
Placing the land in trust recognizes it as Indian land, which is required under state law for a casino.
The UKB is based in Tahlequah, along with the much larger Cherokee Nation, which counts more than 300,000 members.
(Story distributed by The Associated Press)
