Oral arguments recently were heard before a three-judge panel at the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago regarding the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans’ lawsuit against the Ho-Chunk Nation. The Stockbridge-Munsee lost a previous case against the Ho-Chunk over that tribe’s $41 million casino expansion in Wittenberg, Wisconsin, about 16 miles from the Stockbridge-Munsee’s North Star Casino Resort in Bowler. A federal judge ruled the Stockbridge-Munsee should have filed the lawsuit by 2014, six years after Wittenberg opened. The Stockbridge-Munsee didn’t go to court until April 2017.
At the time, U.S. District Judge James Peterson wrote , ‘The Stockbridge-Munsee had six years to call attention to the Wittenberg casino’s alleged violations of the Ho-Chunk Compact, but failed to do so.”
At the latest appeals court hearing, Stockbridge-Munsee attorney Scott David Crowell said the tribe only decided to sue the Ho-Chunk when their approved ancillary facility became a full-fledged casino that would hurt business at their North Star facility. Crowell also implied the state of Wisconsin supported Ho-Chunk for financial gain, since “Stockbridge-Munsee doesn’t pay nearly the amount of money to the state that Ho-Chunk does.”
Judge Frank Easterbrook stated, “I can’t see anything prohibiting one tribe from competing against another tribe in the Indian Regulatory Gaming Act.”
Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Thomas Bellavia also presented arguments and urged the panel to affirm dismissal.
