Two interesting side notes: The first, an article on the construction company, CED Construction Co. which has presented plans for the proposed casino on the Huron Cemetery grounds in Kansas City, Kansas for the Oklahoma Wyandotte Tribe. The second, deals with low income housing tax credits granted to CED Construction which amounts to over $1 million a year for housing built in Oklahoma.

Any see a possible connection here?

Complete documents can be seen at:

Housing

Please sign the petition to stop this desecration:

Cemetary Petition

Your attention to this is appreciated.

Jiawenh ( I thank you)

Ish

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See Also Local Tribe reacts to BIA ruling

Following is an excerpt from the local newspaper article:

By Bob Friskel of the Kansan

Speculation on an Indian casino at the Huron Cemetery at Seventh Street and Minnesota Avenue "is very much premature," Frank Shinook said Thursday. Shinook is a real estate consultant working with CED Construction Orlando Fla. CED does development work with Indian tribes on various gaming and non gaming projects, Shinook said, and the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma is one of the tribe's its working with. Some owners of property in the Seventh and Minnesota area have said Shinook has taken options on their property for a casino. "We haven't done anything for a casino with the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma," Shinook said. "We have options on some property. But we don't know what property might be used. Its important for us to be as confidential as we can because no decision has been made. The tribe will make the decision. We don't presume to tell the tribe what to do."

.............. Larry Hancks, principal planner in the city's planning and zoning department said if the building became Indian property, "I don't know what restrictions could be placed ed on it. But if it were a private developer the city could not issue a demolition permit without state approval. "The same for the Huron Building, which is also on the state and national registers. You're talking about three properties including the cemetery itself, which are on the state and national registers which could possibly be destroyed by a casino project." As for the curse put on the property by the Conley sisters, Indian descendants who camped in the cemetery in a hut to prevent intrusions, Hanks said, "I don't know about that."

............... Helena Conley was buried in the cemetery in 1985 (sic)at the age of 94. Proud of her Indian ancestry, Miss Conley had the name "Floating Voice" chiseled into her tombstone, as well as a warning; or curse.

"Cursed be the villain that molest their graves"

Her sister, Lyda Conley, was fined $10 in police court and jailed in 1937 for assault after she charged Ernest Greenwood with a broom and chased his workmen from their duties. Greenwood was a park department foreman of men sent into Huron Cemetery to clean out underbrush and cut grass and weeds.

Earlier that year she had been arrested for disturbing the peace after chasing off workmen int eh cemetery who had been trying to cut down a dead walnut tree, which she said was a refuge for squirrels and birds. She was released in that chase after staging a sit down strike and refusing to sign her name to a bond which would have secured her release from jail. While she was in jail, workmen finished cutting down the tree.

She told the court to pay the fine "would be to admit jurisdiction in police court on this matter, and the city has no jurisdiction since the cemetery is part of an indian reservation granted the Wyandots by treaty. I'll not admit jurisdiction because they don't have any."

......................... Asked about possible casino construction in, above or near the cemetery, Jim Bland, Second Chief of the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma, said Thursday, "We're looking at some possible things but nothing is ready to be given out. If something is ready, we'll let people know.

"We've looked at putting in a casino in the past. I don't think it will be in 1996."

"We're talking about bingo. That could be in the future, probably in KC K. A casino, that would have to be a compact with the state. At the present time we're not working on it. If we do something, we'll let people know."

Then this note from the Oklahoma House of Representatives......

X-URL: http://www.lsb.state.ok.us/house/news51.htm

OKLAHOMA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MEDIA DIVISION

January 22, 1996

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: State Rep. Fred Morgan State Capitol: (405) 521-2711 Oklahoma City: (405) 232-8131

Lawmaker Proposes Local Control Of Tax-Credit Housing Program

OKLAHOMA CITY -- State lawmakers have submitted a new blueprint for the way federal tax concessions are awarded in Oklahoma to low-income housing developers.

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OHFA's trustees reserved more than $1 million in 1996 tax credits for Florida developer CED Construction Cos. in 1995 to finance the Walnut Creek project in northwest Oklahoma City.

Actually, Morgan pointed out, CED is to receive a million dollars a year in tax credits for 10 years. Only the first year's reservation would be charged against the state's housing credit pool.