By Bob Friskel
of the Kansan 9-11-97
Chief Leaford Bearskin said Wednesday that his Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma has begun plans to build a bingo facility over Huron Cemetery. With state approval it could be developed into a casino.
“We’re making plans right now.” Bearskin said by telephone from Wyandotte, Okla. “I don’t have a date for the start yet, but it should be completed within a year. We’ll build right over a portion of the cemetery. We’re looking at plans for a two-story facility.
“We don’t need any compact with Kansas to start building over the Huron Cemetery. We have all the authority we need to start building right now. We don’t need a city building permit. Its tribal land and belongs to the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma.”
Bearskin recently informed Mayor Carol Marinovich of the plans by letter. He wrote that the tribe which is negotiating for a casino at The Woodlands, will build a “very temporary facility” over the cemetery that “will cease operations the very same day tht the tribe’s gaming facility at The Woodlands opens to the public.”
City Attorney Hal Walker said today that the city will file suit in federal court by at least the middle of next week to stop the cemetery construction.
“We of course, continue to oppose the use of the cemetery or the Scottish Rite Temple for a casino.” Walker said.
“We’re going to do everything we can to stop any action on their part that would be desecration of the cemetery. We will seek a restraining order. The issue will have to be resolved as whether the cemetery is actually Indian reservation trust land. They’re saying they can do high-stakes bingo without a compact which is true, but they really want a casino.”
Walker noted the mayor has said that “if the Indians are going to operate a casino, The Woodlands is in need of that kind of support. We’re in support of a casino at The Woodlands. It appears the only possibility is by Indian gaming. The Legislature won’t allow private development of a casino. Right now the only game in town may well be by the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma.”
“Its according to how The Woodlands progresses,” Bearskin said Wednesday. “If we get The Woodlands first, we’d prefer to go there. If not we’re building over the cemetery.
He said the facility the tribe will uild and operate over the cemetery at first will be only for Class II gaming or bingo, but Class III gaming, a casino, would come later. Clas III gaming, he said is subject to the tribe’s negotiation and execution of a compact with the state of Kansas.
Bearskin told the city that in deference to its wishes it has not moved before to develop a downtown gaming facility and instead has been working for a facility at The Woodlands.
But he added the tribe “can no longer afford to forgo the income from a tribal gaming facility over the Huron Cemetery.
Recent and pending future cuts in federal programs for Indian tribes require tribes throught the country to generate revenue from all potential sources, and other Kansas tribes have developed gaming facilities on their Kansas lands.”
He noted the United States has held title to the Huron Cemetery in trust for the benefit of the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma continuosly since 1855. As such he said, the tribe has always had the right to develop a gaming facility there.
The tribe already has purchased the adjacent former Scottish Rite Temple Building. Bearskin said one or two tribal members “in a week or two” will open a tribal office there.
He said the building plans are “absolutely not” a tactic to hasten approval of a casino at the Woodlands.
Jan English, second chief of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas said today it “opposes any action that will lead to the desecration of Huorn Cemetery.”
Bearskin’s Wyandotte Tribe received U.S. Department of Interior approval for a casino in downtown KCK last year. Other Kansas tribes have sought to block the approval.
The U.S. District Court in Topeka issued a temporary restraining order, but further action is pending.