Tribe moves ahead with casino amid protests

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BROKEN ARROW, Okla. (AP) – A little-known Oklahoma Indian tribe with fewer than 450 members is moving ahead with plans to build a casino a few blocks from the future site of an elementary school and pre-kindergarten center in this Tulsa suburb, despite protests from federal lawmakers and hundreds of residents who worry the gaming center could bring a flurry of criminal activity to the area.

The Kialegee Tribal Town, headquartered in Wetumka in southeastern Oklahoma, began bulldozing the 20-acre site near the heavily trafficked Creek Turnpike late last month, even as the tribe's application for a gaming license to operate the casino is still under review by the National Indian Gaming Commission.

Temporary buildings for the tribe's Red Clay Casino are scheduled to open in the spring and join several, larger, casinos already operating in Tulsa County. Oklahoma is home to about 115 gaming centers that hauled in more than $3.1 billion in gambling revenue in 2009, according to the Indian Gaming Industry Report, written by economist Alan Meister.

The casino – about 10 miles from one operated by another tribe – quickly drew the ire of residents and school administrators who fear the tribe is attempting to sneak the development by the conservative bedroom community of 99,000.

Recent rallies have drawn hundreds of opponents and more than 4,000 people have signed a petition to keep the casino out. Thursday, about 1,000 residents, preachers and politicians gathered at a church to voice opposition, saying the casino could set a dangerous precedent of allowing property owners to circumvent the law and offer their land to the highest casino bidder.

In a Jan. 6 letter to the gaming commission and Assistant U.S. Interior Secretary Larry Echo Hawk, U.S. Rep. John Sullivan and Sen. Tom Coburn detailed residents' concerns, including the proposed casino's close location to area schools, the squeeze on public resources such as utilities and public safety and “the perceived below the radar path” the development has taken. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of the Interior did not return a message seeking comment. Sullivan is expected to meet with the gaming commission this week.

“They are acting under cover of darkness,” said local attorney Jared Cawley, co-founder of the group Broken Arrow Citizens Against Neighborhood Gaming.

Cawley said the tribe has failed to meet the basic requirements of any Indian casino project, including obtaining approval of a land lease from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and conducting environmental impact studies, which could take several months to complete.

The land is currently owned by two sisters who have attempted to transfer their parcel to the tribe, but a district judge has refused to approve the transaction, deferring instead to the federal government to determine whether the land can be leased.

“On a basic level, one of the fundamental questions is, is it even tribal land?” Cawley said. “We would like to see if what the tribe is doing is legitimate and we would like at a minimum to see if there's some compliance with federal law.”

Tribal leaders and a Miami-based attorney representing the casino development group did not return requests seeking comment. In a statement issued last month, days after residents discovered that construction had begun, tribal leader Tiger Hobia said the Kialegee have kept the federal government and the city up to date on the casino plans. Hobia also claimed that the casino is necessary because the tribe lacks enough resources to fund programs that serve its members.

But Broken Arrow City Councilman Richard Carter disputed Hobia's statement about the project's transparency, saying the tribe has provided the city “almost nothing as far as information.”

“That's not the way to be a good neighbor,” Carter said. “We are sending our disapproval to every agency we can think of. We seem to be pretty united against this thing and I hope that we can prevail.”

If the casino goes forward, it will be located several blocks from an 80-acre parcel purchased by the district for a new elementary school and pre-kindergarten center, where nearly 1,000 students are expected to attend when the buildings open in the fall of 2013. Dozens of angered parents have lobbied the district to oppose the casino because of the proximity and safety concerns, such as inadequate roads and crosswalks to accommodate the increased traffic.

“We're not against the tribe. We live in the middle of Native American lands and Native American groups, and many of us are of Native American descent,” said Broken Arrow Superintendent Jarod Mendenhall. “It's just the location and the way this has been done has not set well with anybody in the community.”

Broken Arrow resident Seth Spreiter lives roughly a half-mile from the casino site and has helped organize his neighborhood against the project.

“I bought my home four months ago and I bought it because there wasn't a casino in the area,” Spreiter said. “A casino changes the tempo of the entire community.

“This is the wrong type of facility at the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.