Tulsa World
28 November 1997
Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback says he told the leader of the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma that he will continue to strongly oppose location of a casino on Indian cemetery land in Kansas City, Kan.
Brownback said during an interview Wednesday that he met last week in Wichita with Chief Leaford Bearskin of the Wyandottes and his tribal lawyer and told them, “I’m going to fight them every inch of the way, any way I can.”
He said the chief indicated he plans to pursue a court case pending in federal court here, seeking to prove the tribe has the right to build on the Huron Cemetery “I think that just shocks the conscience of people,” Brownback said of the plan to build the casino on “sacred” land.
Brownback succeeded a month ago in winning Senate approval of an amendment to the Interior Department’s appropriations bill that designates the disputed land in Kansas City, Kan., as a cemetery – and says it can never be used for any other purpose. President Clinton has signed the bill into law.