The Comanche Nation wants the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its case that the Chickasaw Nation should not have been allowed to open RiverStar Casino in Terral, Oklahoma on land near the Comanche’s Red River Hotel and Casino in Devol. The Bureau of Indian Affairs approved taking the Terral land into trust for the Chickasaw casino on the last full day of the Obama administration in January 2017. However, although the Trump administration held up the official notice of the acquisition until July 2017, the Chickasaws proceeded to break ground on the casino.
The filing states, “The Comanche had no choice but to bring this challenge. The Chickasaw Nation already has two dozen casinos bringing in more than a billion dollars a year. It is setting up yet another casino at Terral, Oklahoma, less than 45 miles downriver from the Comanche Red River Hotel and Casino at Devol. The latest acquisition for the benefit of the Chickasaw Nation is an existential threat to the economic lifeline of the Comanche Nation, the Red River Hotel and Casino at Devol, Oklahoma.”
The petition continues, “The operation at Devol is the economic lifeline of the Comanche Nation: The $60 million in net annual revenue that flow from the Red River Hotel and Casino – just 6 percent of the yearly take from Chickasaw’s several dozen operations – is more than 60 percent of the funds necessary for the Comanche to sustain vital tribal operations and social service programs.”
Last December, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Comanches had no case, after a federal judge refused to prevent the Chickasaw casino from being built. Opened in March 2018, RiverStar Casino, located near the Texas border, draws from the same market as the Comanche’s Red River venue.
The Supreme Court is expected to respond on May 2, according to Docket No. 18-1261.
Another Oklahoma tribe, the Cherokee Nation, is moving forward on its Cherokee Casino in Tahlequah. The tribe broke ground on the 92,000 square foot facility in March 2018 and will open this year with 525 electronic games, 144-seat restaurant, café, bar, live music venue and 33,000 square feet of convention and meeting space. Ground recently was broken for a new 90-room Tru by Hilton hotel next to the casino, opening in 2020.
At the groundbreaking, Cherokee Chief Bill John Baker said, “Tahlequah is a place that is on the move.”
