The
Cherokee Nation is offering to settle a land-into-trust dispute with the
United Keetoowah Band of
Cherokee Indians.
The United Keetoowah Band operates the
Keetoowah Cherokee Casino on a 2.03-acre site in Tahlequah. The
Bureau of Indian Affairs plans to place the land in trust, a decision opposed by the Cherokee Nation.
So the Cherokee Nation says the land should be placed in trust for its benefit instead. Chief Bill John Baker said his tribe will lease the site to the United Keetoowah Band for 99 years in order to allow the casino to stay in operation.
“As Cherokee people I believe we should be able to find a solution that works for everyone – always remembering that we all come from one fire,”
Baker said in a press release.
Baker also proposed a second option. He said the United Keetoowah Band could move its facility to a site outside of Tahlequah that's already in trust for the Cherokee Nation.
“As the elected leader of the Cherokee Nation, I never want to see jobs or economic opportunities lost for our extended Cherokee families,” Baker said. I hope that Chief Wickliffe and the UKB Council will consider our offer and join us in finding a solution that will meet all our needs and keep Cherokees employed.”
United Keetoowah Band officials declined to discuss the offer. They said they will fight the lawsuit that the Cherokee Nation filed in federal court on Tuesday.
"In its never-ending quest to destroy its Cherokee brothers and sisters, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has this day filed a request that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma enter an order to prohibit the Department of Interior from taking land, presently owned by the UKB, into trust," the tribe said in a statement. "The effect of this injunction, if granted, would immediately throw some 300 Keetoowahs out of work. We trust that the federal court, upon hearing all of the evidence, will decline to issue an injunction and permit the Department of Interior provisionally to take the land into trust."
Regardless of the United Keetoowah Band's response, the Cherokee Nation's offer might not pass muster under the
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The law requires a gaming facility to be in the "sole proprietary interest" of the tribe with jurisdiction over the gaming site.
If the Tahlequah site is placed in trust for the Cherokee Nation, the United Keetoowah Band would not have jurisdiction there. The same issue arises at the site outside of Tahlequah.
In either scenario, the Cherokee Nation says the United Keetoowah Band would receive all of the profits from the gaming facility but the IGRA provision makes that offer questionable.
Get the Story:
Cherokees offer deal in UKB land fight
(The Muskogee Phoenix 7/25)
Chief proposes solution after CN petitions to block UKB land trust
(The Tahlequah Daily Press 7/24)
Related Stories
Cherokee Nation sues to block UKB casino
land-into-trust bid (7/24)
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