Wisconsin’s Menominee Nation and the Forest County Potawatomi Community have been fighting for years over the Menominee’s desire to build an off-reservation casino in Kenosha, and even though Gov. Scott Walker killed the project, they’re still fighting.
Stoking the fires is a lawsuit filed by the Forest County Potawatomi against the Bureau of Indian Affairs for rejecting the tribe’s Class III gaming compact because it included a provision aimed at removing the Kenosha project from future consideration.
The Potawatomis operate the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee. Kenosha is less than 50 miles away and falls within a “non-competition zone” that was created by the disputed compact, which also would allow the tribe to cease sharing gaming revenues from the property with the state in the event the Kenosha project becomes a reality.
The bureau rejected the compact on the grounds that in effect it holds the Menominee Nation responsible for the lost revenue.
“We have never been presented with a compact or amendment that goes so far as to attempt to guarantee the continued profitability of one tribe’s casino at the expense of another tribe,” said then-Assistant Secretary Kevin Washburn.
In a further blow, a federal judge has ruled that since the Forest County are suing to reinstate the compact, the Menominee must be allowed to intervene in the action since their rights are directly affected.
“The requested relief, if granted, would, as a practical matter, impede the Menominee’s efforts to obtain a gubernatorial concurrence and would thereby impede their efforts to develop a gaming facility in Kenosha,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in her decision.
The case is Forest County Potawatomi Community v. United States.
