Casino Stalker

Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation waits for ruling on Illinois casino

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

A view of the ancestral Shab-eh-nay Reservation in Illinois. Photo from Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation of Kansas is still waiting for an answer on its proposed casino in Illinois.

In 2006, the tribe acquired 128 acres within the Shab-eh-nay Reservation in present-day DeKalb County. Plans call for a portion of the site to be used a Class II facility with 800 electronic gaming machines, two bars, a restaurant and another eatery.

Local sentiment appears to favor the tribe. Some welcome the jobs and revenues that the facility will bring to the area, The Chicago Tribune reported.

But a group called DeKalb County Taxpayers Against the Casino opposes the project. "Casinos are hard on communities," Peter Dordal, who lives near the tribe's land, told the paper.

The tribe believes the Shab-eh-nay Reservation has never been extinguished and a top former Interior Department official once described the tribe's claim to the land as "credible" after Republican lawmakers introduced legislation to extinguish all Indian title in the state. As the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously confirmed last week in Nebraska v. Parker, only Congress can diminish or otherwise dissolve a reservation.

Still, the tribe is going through the land-into-trust process for the 128-acre site. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is preparing an environmental impact statement but a decision could be years away.

Get the Story:
Tiny town 70 miles west of Chicago may bet future on Illinois' first Native American casino (The Chicago Tribune 3/29)\

Federal Register Notice:
Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation's Proposed Trust Acquisition and Gaming Facility Project, DeKalb County, Illinois (January 6, 2016)