Newsletter #52 (cont)
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Legislation that cleared a U.S. House committee Wednesday would force the Department of the Interior to approve a land deal that is key to allowing the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma to buy The Woodlands racetrack and add a casino there.
Rep. Vince Snowbarger of Kansas tried to halt the bill's progress. In a letter to committee members this week, Snowbarger cited an ongoing land-rights battle in federal court in Topeka between factions of the tribe.``Until this controversy is resolved, it is inappropriate for the Congress to override the due process to which the Wyandot Nation of Kansas is entitled by arbitrarily choosing one tribe over the other,'' the Republican said in his letter.
The proposed Wyandotte Tribe Settlement Act of 1998, sponsored by Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska, seeks to compensate the Oklahoma branch of the tribe for Congress' decision last year barring it from using its historic cemetery lands in Kansas City, Kan., for gaming purposes.
That 1997 legislation, sponsored by Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, blocked the tribe's announced plans to build a high-stakes bingo hall on the two-acre Huron Cemetery site it owns in downtown Kansas City, Kan. Young, the committee's chairman, was angered last fall when his House Committee on Resources, which handles American Indian issues, was bypassed in hearing the Brownback bill. Young also complained at the time that the Wyandotte tribe never received an opportunity to testify.
Young's measure notes, ``The United States government has ... taken from the Wyandotte Tribe the right to conduct gaming on Wyandotte trust land in Wyandotte County, Kan. '' It would require the U.S. interior secretary to approve the tribe's proposal to purchase The Woodlands and place the land in trust with the government ``for gaming purposes. '' Other government agencies, including the Kansas Legislature, also would have to approve the casino deal. But the Kansas-based Wyandot Nation branch of the tribe has disputed earlier Interior Department rulings that awarded the Oklahoma group legal rights to the cemetery land and a license to offer bingo and other noncasino wagering games there. Approval for gambling on or near the cemetery grounds is the tribe's bargaining chip to negotiate state and local government approvals for a full-scale casino at The Woodlands. In another letter to Young's committee this week, Wyandot Nation tribal official Darren Zane English cited a 1908 opinion by the U.S. attorney general and other federal decisions that have concluded the Oklahoma faction abandoned the cemetery when its members migrated south more than 100 years ago.
Wyandot Nation members argue that the Oklahoma group's interest in the land was revived only after passage of a federal law in the 1980s allowing gambling on Indian lands.
The Oklahoma tribe's casino partners include a Kansas subsidiary of Hollywood Park Inc., which owns The Woodlands, and a Kansas subsidiary of North American Sports Management, a Maitland, Fla., company with residential real estate holdings. Long-term plans call for a hotel, restaurant and nightclub. However, the track is in bankruptcy, and a federal judge recently rejected the owners' plans for a financial restructuring based in part on the proposed tribal casino deal.
That decision appears to pave the way for new track ownership. And first in line appears to be the track's creditors. That group, led by St. Joseph businessman William Grace, who has other casino interests in Missouri, Iowa and Kansas, has proposed to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John T. Flannagan its own plans for casino gambling to revive interest in the racetrack.
But Grace said this week he wasn't ruling out a partnership with the tribe. He said he expected the judge to award the track to his group within 90 days. Grace said any talk of specific plans after that would be ``premature until we are in possession of the track. '' Grace also said that he had advised the tribe of his willingness to talk about the tribe's track plan and that he had met recently with Carol Marinovich, mayor of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan. The Unified Government has long opposed the tribe's plan for gambling at the cemetery site but backs its plan to add slot machines and other casino games at The Woodlands to save the track and its 400 jobs. Municipal officials this week knew little about Young's proposal. But Marinovich expressed concern about whether the city's interests would be shoved aside.``Local government should have ... some control in this process,'' she said, ``particularly about location and the amount of land to be put in trust. ''
Snowbarger also complained that Young's measure would bypass review by Kansas officials. yandotte tribal attorney David McCullough said the tribe would be willing to talk with Grace about a partnership. ``The tribe isn't closing the door on any potential options out there,'' he said. McCullough said the tribe approached Young for his support shortly after the Brownback measure was approved last year. ``The tribe had been deprived of a right, a treaty right .. to game on the Huron Cemetery,'' McCullough said.Brownback's office had no comment on Young's bill. Last year the Kansas Republican said his measure only reiterated language in the tribe's 1855 treaty with the government that ``permanently'' set aside the cemetery land as ``a public burying ground. ''
{Contributed by : Darren English, Wyandot Nation of Kansas}