A federal judge recently denied the Comanche Nation’s request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the Chickasaw Nation from opening a $10 million, 36,000 square foot casino in Terral, Oklahoma, near the Texas border. Court papers showed the Comanches were concerned about the “competitive impact of the Chickasaw casino on plaintiff’s own casino operation. Such economic impacts, standing alone, are ordinarily not a basis for claim” under federal environmental law, Judge Joe Heaton wrote in the decision. The Comanches operate the Red River Hotel and Casino about 50 miles from the Chickasaw site. The tribe also owns land about 10 miles from Terral where it expected to open a casino.
Heaton added the tribe’s other claims involving the Indian Reorganization Act and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act most likely would be denied.
With nearly two dozen casinos, the Chickasaw Nation operates more facilities in Oklahoma and in the U.S. than any other tribe. Most of the venues are located on lands that were placed in trust after 1988. IGRA generally bans casinos on land acquired after 1988, but an exception in Section 20 allows casinos on land located within the boundaries a former Oklahoma reservation. The Obama administration had concluded the land for the Chickasaw’s Terral site was located within the former reservation, Heaton noted.
However, the Comanches said that exception is not applied evenly and the Chickasaws seemed to receive favorable treatment. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said, “There’s great inconsistency and, to date, the process is unclear to me. I’ll get to the bottom of it.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has delayed approval of the Shawnee Tribe’s land-trust application for a site more than 400 from the tribe’s headquarters.
