U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree recently dismissed Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s and the Cherokee County Commission’s lawsuit seeking to stop Downstream Casino Resort in Quapaw, Oklahoma from expanding across the state line into Kansas. In 2006 and 2007 the tribe purchased 124 acres in Kansas that now is in federal trust.
The land can be used for gambling, National Indian Gaming Commission attorneys determined in November 2014. Crabtree ruled the court did not have the jurisdiction to review that determination, which was not a final decision by the NIGC. He added Downstream Casino operators, the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma, did not waive their tribal immunity against lawsuits. Crabtree also ruled Kansas must pay legal costs for the NIGC.
Schmidt’s and Cherokee County’s lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Topeka named the NIGC, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and 22 other federal and Quapaw officials including Tribal Chairman John Berrey. In a statement, Berrey wrote Kansas Governor Sam Brownback had asked the Quapaws to request the opinion from the NIGC as part of the tribe’s effort to negotiate a gaming compact to allow casino gambling on the tribe’s Kansas land. “Not only did Governor Brownback not engage in good-faith negotiations, as he promised, but he and Attorney General Derek Schmidt deliberately targeted and harassed a number of our tribal leaders by suing them. Most of these people had no connection or involvement with tribal gaming. The suit appears to have been nothing but an attempt to discourage the tribe from pursuing its rights under federal law. This case should cause people in Kansas to ask a lot of questions, especially about Governor Brownback’s treatment of Indians and use of taxpayers’ money.”
Clint Blaes, a spokesman for Schmidt, said, “We are reviewing the opinion and assessing the state’s options.”
Quapaw spokesman Sean Harrison said the tribe wants to offer craps and roulette on its Kansas property; the games not allowed at Downstream under Oklahoma law.
