Okla. governor’s office questioned casino plans

User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin’s office learned about an Indian tribe’s controversial plan to build a casino in Broken Arrow months ago and questioned whether the land qualified for gaming. 

The Tulsa World reported Sunday that the governor’s office began discussions with the Kialegee Tribal Town, a little-known Indian tribe with fewer than 450 members, as early as last February when the tribe inquired about signing a gaming compact.

Residents in Broken Arrow, Tulsa’s largest suburb, didn’t learn about plans to build a casino there until December, the World reported. Since then, federal lawmakers and hundreds of residents have protested the proposed casino, which would be a few blocks from a planned elementary school.

Fallin’s general counsel expressed concerns about the proposed casino’s location a few months after the governor’s office began its discussions with the tribe.

“As we discussed, I don’t think the site they plan to use qualifies,” Judy Copeland, Fallin’s general counsel, wrote to Senior Assistant Attorney General Neal Leader in a May 11 email obtained by the World.

So, in a letter to the tribe’s attorney a week later, Copeland asked the Kialegee Tribal Town to provide documentation showing that the proposed site for the casino is on the tribe’s land.

The Kialegee Tribal Town sent a 21-page document outlining why it believes it can build a casino on the land. The document cites court and agency rulings, treaties, federal laws and tribal constitutions among evidence that it has jurisdiction over the land as a member of the former Creek Confederacy, the World reported.

Attorney Vicki Sousa wrote that “we are happy to provide you with a copy of the Deed to the property, as well as a legal analysis which demonstrates the Tribe’s jurisdiction and governmental control over the allotment.”

The Kialegee Tribal Town, headquartered in Wetumka in southeastern Oklahoma, began bulldozing the 20-acre site 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.

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.

–––

Information from: Tulsa World, http://www.tulsaworld.com