June 28, 1996
(Horton Kansas) The Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas announced today that it will oppose the fee-to-trust land acquisition at Kansas City, Kansas by the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma.
The Wyandotte Tribe (of Oklahoma) recently filed an application with the Bureau Affairs (BIA) to place approximately one-half acre of land it plans to purchase adjacent to the old Huron Indian Cemetery in trust status so it can establish and operate a Class III (Las Vegas type) Gaming facility on the land.
The 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allows tribes to engage in Class III Gaming on reservation lands that are held in the name of the United States in trust for the tribe.
The Huron Cemetery is located just north of City Hall in downtown Kansas City, Kansas and consists of approximately two acres that was reserved as a “public cemetery” under the 1855 Wyandott Treaty. BIA has paid the City to maintain the cemetery over the years.
In the 1950’s the Oklahoma Wyandotte Tribe proposed to move the graves at the cemetery to Oklahoma and sell the cemetery land to commercial interests for over $1 million. These attempts were successfully opposed by members of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas, who live in the Kansas City area, and local civic organizations.
The Oklahoma Wyandotte Oklahoma Tribe’s latest attempt to capitalize on the cemetery is based on BIA’s classification of the cemetery as “reservation land.” If it is in fact part of the Oklahoma Wyandotte Tribe’s reservation, the tribe might be eligible to purchase a one-half acre tract adjacent to the cemetery with moneys awarded by the Indian Claims Commission and have it placed in trust status for Class III Gaming purposes. The Congressional act approving disbursement of their Indian Claims Commission money provided that land purchased for the tribe “shall be placed in trust.”
On May 31, 1996, Governor Bill Graves of Kansas sent a letter to Secretary of Interior Babbitt requesting that the Oklahoma Wyandotte Tribe’s application be held in abeyance until the complex historical and legal issues involved could be studied. This request apparently fell on deaf ears- Assistant Secretary of Interior Ada Deer published a notice in the June 12, 1996 edition of the Federal Register stating that the Wyandotte’s application was approved, BIA’s action was final ant that interested parties had 30 days to initiate legal proceedings against the BIA to stop placing the land in trust.
Fred Thomas, Chairman of the Kickapoo Tribe, stated that politics appears top be the motivating factor behind the BIA actions. he said that “the Kickapoo Tribe has been trying to get BIA to put land in trust on our reservation for several years, yet along comes an out of state tribe that doesn’t even exercise powers of self-government in Kansas and the BIA processed their application in weeks.”
Thomas questioned whether the two acre tract containing the cemetery even has reservation status to begin with; stated that “BIA’s action is unfair to the Kansas tribes who have spent considerable amounts of time, energy and money to get their compacts approved so they could conduct gaming in the state to benefit their peoples.”
Thomas stated that “the Huron Cemetery and two adjacent buildings has been designated national historic sites and are on the Register of National Historic Places.”{ He said that “the general public also has an interest in the cemetery under other federal acts, such as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and National Environmental Protection Act. It is evident that BIA is ignoring the public’s interest in favor of the commercial interests that are behind the Wyandotte Tribe’s proposed gaming facility.”
Thomas stated that “BIA has indicated that the National Environmental Protection Act is not applicable to the Wyandotte Tribe’s fee-to-trust land acquisition, but I question this. I feel that a full environmental impact statement should be demanded to assess what adverse environmental and social impacts will occur to the general public and resident Kansas tribes.”
Thomas indicated that he sent a June 19, 1996 letter to Governor Graves notifying him that the Kickapoo Tribe intended to initiate legal proceedings against the BIA to stop the establishment o the Oklahoma Wyandotte Tribe’s proposed gaming facility at the cemetery.
For more information
Mr. Fred Thomas, Chairman
Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas
P.O. Box 271
Horton, KS 66439-0271
913-486-2131 or 486-2132