Briefing continues in an off-reservation gaming dispute between the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and the state of Michigan. The tribe acquired the site for the proposed Lansing Kewadin Casino in connection with the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act. A land-into-trust application has not been submitted. The tribe believes the MILCSA requires the Bureau of Indian Affairs to place the land in trust. A federal judge, however, barred the tribe from moving forward without first securing the approval of all of Michigan's tribes under the Class III gaming compact. The tribe is now asking the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to lift the injunction. Among other issues, the tribe argues in its opening brief that it did not waive its sovereign immunity nor has Congress waived it under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. "The Lansing property is not yet either part of a reservation or held in trust," the tribe writes in the May 31 brief. "Indeed, the main goal of the state’s suit -- and the effect of the district court’s injunction -- is to block the tribe from even presenting to the [Interior] Secretary the tribe’s legal claim for trust status under MILCSA." The state filed a response on Monday. Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Michigan v. Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
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