WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – On Friday, April 17, Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma Chairman John Berrey reacted to allegations in a lawsuit filed in Wichita, Kansas, Federal Court, seeking an injunction to stop the tribe from expanding its Oklahoma facility into Kansas.
The lawsuit contends the Quapaw tribe misled state and federal officials in late 2011 or early 2012 by providing assurances that land currently serving as a parking lot would not be used for gaming purposes when they applied to put the land in trust.
“We did not lie in any way, shape or form in our application for land into trust and our subsequent request for the NIGC to give us a gameability opinion,” Berrey said in a conference call with the media Friday. “Governor (Sam) Brownback asked me to get the gameablity opinion, not anybody else, but he personally asked me to get the opinion and I think it’s ironic and disingenuous that somehow they’re trying to make us into the liars.”
Berrey was referring to a recent National Indian Gaming Commission decision stating the Kansas property was part of the tribe’s “historic reservation” and therefore gaming could be allowed.
The state and Cherokee County officials maintain historic reservation exemption was misapplied and that, moreover, the tribe had intended all along to expand gaming into Kansas.
Berrey said this is not true, but the expansion is in response to the Kansas State Legislature lowering the initial investment for a state-owned casino in Cherokee or Crawford counties.
The legislature made the move after Penn National Gaming pulled out of a plan to build a casino essentially across the street from Downstream Casino and Resort, saying the presence of the tribal casino made a state-owned facility nearby financially unfeasible.
“We had no intended change of use at the time of our application,” Berrey said. “When the state legislature lowered the bar and is trying to create an opportunity for a state-owned gaming facility in my backyard. That’s when we decided we should make a change in use. It came after the legislation.
“I think think what the Attorney General of the State of Kansas (Derek Schmidt) and Governor Brownback are, are a bunch of racist, Indian haters. It’s embarrassing to me at this day and time that those two liars are trying to make me out to be the liar.”
A spokeswoman with Gov. Brownback’s office said the governor would not respond to the allegations of racism.
“Mr. Berrey’s claims are just baseless,” said Brownback Spokeswoman Elieen Hawley. “I’m not going to respond to that.” She also said that to her knowledge Brownback had not personally asked Berrey to get the NIGC opinion.
The state maintains that there is heavy equipment “poised to begin construction,” something Berrey says is absolutely not true.
“There’s no construction taking place so they’re trying to get an injunction against something that’s not even happening,” he said. “Which tells you a lot about their integrity.
“This whole injunction thing is a farce, there’s no construction taking place they’re chasing ghosts. There is no heavy equipment in the Kansas portion of our casino property. There’s heavy equipment in the Oklahoma side behind the casino where I’m building a parking lot and a new pavilion expansion.
“There’s some equipment on the Kansas side that’s helping us with our carpet replacement that’s taking place. There’s no earth moving, there’s no digging, there’s no foundations being created and we do not have a timeline for the expansion.”
Berrey said the bottom line, in his opinion, is the state wanting to be in direct competition with the tribe.
“We’re a tribe, we are a sovereign nation and if we want to add on to our building we can do it and we don’t need to ask the governor of Kansas or any other state if we can do it,” Berrey said. “He needs to mind his own business.
“All they’re concerned about is protecting his good-old-boy buddies who might have a state-owned casino opportunity in my backyard.”
Schmidt sued the tribe last month, challenging a decision by the NIGS last year to authorize casino games on 124 acres in Cherokee County. The site is adjacent to the Downstream Casino site in Oklahoma and was purchased by the tribe in 2006 for a parking lot.
The federal government put the Kansas land in trust for the tribe in 2012, and the commission in November declared that the site could be treated as reservation land and used for casino gambling under federal law. The tribe is planning a $15 million addition offering table games, such as roulette, not allowed in Oklahoma.
