Quapaw Tribe says casino not likely on Arkansas land

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A spokesman for the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma says a casino is not likely on land in Arkansas that the tribe wants placed into a federal trust, but says such a venture has not been ruled out.

The tribe has purchased 160 acres just outside the Little Rock city limits in Pulaski County, south of the Little Rock industrial port.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs sent a letter to Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde earlier this month, asking for financial information about the property to "assess the impact of the removal of this property from the tax rolls." Hyde has 30 days to respond and add any other comments.

Hyde has said he wanted to consult with other city and county officials before sending any comments to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was out of the office Friday but said in an email that he hadn’t heard anything more from anyone about the issue.

Having the land placed in a trust would make it American Indian land, said Sean Harrison, a spokesman for the tribe. That’s a common step for a tribe to take with land it has acquired because it exempts the land from local taxes and laws.

In Oklahoma, the tribe has a compact with the state for running its casinos and the tribe pays fees to the state, Harrison said.

If the tribe pursued a casino in Arkansas, it would likely go through the same process, but that’s unlikely to happen until the state changes its law on where gambling can take place, according to Harrison.

"That compact would outline what games could be played, maybe what hours of operation, how much your fees would cost, what those fees would be used for," Harrison said. And the compact fee could go to wherever the state wanted it to, he said.

Currently, gambling in Arkansas is allowed only at Oaklawn Racing and Gaming in Hot Springs and Southland Park Gaming and Racing in West Memphis.

As of right now, the tribe has no specific plans for the land but plans to do something, Harrison said. He said tribal leaders are not saying "no" to a casino and that speculation that they plan to build a casino has flowed from that.

The tribe purchased the land after discovering graves that dated back hundreds of years to when the tribe was in Arkansas. The Quapaws, indigenous to Arkansas, were relocated to northeast Oklahoma in the mid-1800s.

Last year, the tribe learned that graves of blacks were also found on the land, likely dating back to before the Civil War.

The tribe has a partnership with the Preservation of African American Cemeteries group and is focused on maintaining the grave sites, Harrison said.