A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled a hearing in the appeal of a lawsuit that has prevented the Mechoopda Tribe from operating a casino in Northern California.
Congress terminated the tribe in 1958, but it was restored to a federally-recognized tribe by the courts in 1992, by which time its reservation had shrunk to a fraction of an acre in the city of Chico.
Now the tribe is trying to rebuild its homeland on 645 acres ten miles from its original Rancheria in Butte County, which has opposed putting the land into trust ever since the tribe applied to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2004. The BIA approved the application in 2008 but Butte County’s lawsuit led to a reconsideration. After going over the process again the BIA again approved the application in 2014,
Both the Bush and Obama administrations have supported this effort, and recently a federal judge ruled in its favor. However, Butte County appealed to the D.C. Circuit.
If the tribe’s case is upheld it seeks to build a casino on the land. The National Indian Gaming Commission has already ruled that the land can be used for that purpose.
