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Dale Kildee questions Sault Tribe's off-reservation casino plans


Filed Under: Casino Stalker
More on: bia, dale kildee, igra, land claims, land-into-trust, michigan, off-reservation, section 20, soo tribe
   

Artist's rendering of the proposed Kewadin Lansing Casino. Image from Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians

Former Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Michigan), a co-founder of the Congressional Native American Caucus, says the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians shouldn't be allowed to open off-reservation casinos in Michigan by using land claim settlement funds.

Kildee sponsored the Michigan Indian Land Claims Settlement Act (MILCSA) of 1997. The law authorized the acquisition of new lands and requires the Bureau of Indian Affairs to place them in trust.

But Kildee said those lands should not be used for gaming. “Congress would never have passed the bill if that had been in there,” the retired lawmaker told MLive.

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act generally bars gaming on land acquired after 1988. But Section 20 of the law contains an exception for tribes with land claim settlements.

MILCSA came nearly a decade after IGRA so Congress could have addressed the use of the exception in the law. Congress also could have included an outright ban on gaming on newly acquired lands by the tribes whose claims were settled.

Since 1988, the land claim exception in Section 20 has been used successfully just once. The Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma opened an off-reservation casino in Kansas on land that was acquired with settlement funds.

The Seneca Nation also operates off-reservation casinos on land acquired with settlement funds. However, the tribe's lands are held in restricted status under the Seneca Nation Settlement Act of 1990 so the Section 20 exception does not apply, a federal judge ruled in May 2013.

The Sault Tribe has submitted land-into-trust applications for off-reservation casinos in Lansing and Huron.

Get the Story:
Dale Kildee: Land for Soo tribe casinos in Lansing and SE Michigan not his legislation’s intent (MLive 6/18)
Lower Peninsula tribes wary of Soo Indians’ plans for casinos in Lansing and Metro Detroit (MLive 6/19)

Supreme Court Decision:
Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian Community (May 27, 2014)

6th Circuit Decision:
Michigan v. Sault Ste Marie Tribe (December 18, 2013)

Related Stories:
Local official open to Sault Tribe off-reservation casino proposal (6/18)

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