The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis recently heard testimony regarding the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska’s casino in Carter Lake, Iowa. The tribe purchased the land in 1999 intending to build a health clinic for tribal members.
However, in 2017, the National Indian Gaming Commission allowed the tribe to build a casino there instead. The city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, located next to Carter Lake and home to several casinos, filed suit in federal court to block the Ponca’s Prairie Flower casino; the states of Nebraska and Iowa also joined the lawsuit.
Carter Lake is the only Iowa city west of the Missouri River. It happened due to a shift in the river following an 1877 flood that created an oxbow lake from a former river bend. In 1892 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Carter Lake belongs to Iowa.
The 3-judge appeals panel will determine whether Congress created an exception in federal Indian gaming law to allow a casino on the tribe’s Iowa land, located well beyond its historic reservation. The states and Council Bluffs claim the Poncas’ Carter Lake land was not eligible for federal designation as “restored lands” under the 1990 Ponca Restoration Act, in which Congress allowed the Ponca to expand their lands to compensate for the loss of its historic reservation. The plaintiffs argue that the Ponca Restoration Act allowed the tribe to add land only in the Nebraska counties of Boyd and Knox, 100 miles from Carter Lake.
In 2019, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose in Des Moines ruled against the plaintiffs, leading to the current appeal. The tribe built and opened its casino in Carter Lake while the case was before the district court.
Representing Council Bluffs, Iowa and Nebraska, Iowa Assistant Attorney General John Lundquist said, “The court need not look any farther than the language used in the Restoration Act to find the answer: Knox and Boyd counties in Nebraska are the only geographic areas specifically identified in the Ponca Restoration Act as areas where the secretary can take land into trust for the benefit of the tribe,” Lundquist said.
Mary Gabrielle Sprague, a lawyer for the U.S. Justice Department, countered, “When you look at where that land was expected to be taken into trust, the statute defines a large service area of 16 counties where the Ponca people live. Congress did not want to move the Ponca people back to their historic reservation in Boyd and Knox counties. They thought that would be a recipe for disaster. So they instead expressed clear intent to allow the Ponca people to remain living where they were living and to provide services to them.”
