By Mike Jones,News-Press Staff Writer
Kansas City, Kan.–The WYandot Nation of Kansas doesn’t want a casino associated with an old tribal cemetery in Kansas City, Kan., and hopes to get more standing to oppose it, a leader says.
We’re embarrassed and distressed by this…It’s all sacred ground”, said Second Chief Jan English. “We’re dedicated to the protection of the cemetery. We feel a casino located on or adjacent o the cemetery would disturb its sanctity.
Ms. English was speaking about an effort by the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma to develop a casino on a property adjacent to the old cemetery, a move that also has angered the four federally recognized tribes in Kansas.
The Wyandot of Kansas and the Wyandotte of Oklahoma have common relatives buried at the old cemetery, which is between Sixth and Seventh streets and Minnesota and Ann avenues. Principally targeted for the casino is the Huron Building, which is adjacent to the cemetery’s west side and faces on Seventh Street, U.S.Bureau of Indian Afffairs officials say.
“We believe we have an equal or greater claim in equity because we’ve continued using the cemetery”, Ms. English said, noting that the Wyandotte of Oklahoma left the area during 1860’s and 1870’s.
The Prairie Band Potawatomi, the Kickapoo, the Iowa, and the Sac and Fox tribes are opening casinos in Northeast Kansas and in recent weeks have strongly opposed a casino operated in Kansas by the Wyandotte of Oklahoma.
Attracted by the potential of a lucrative gaming market in the Kansas City, area, the four Kansas tribes tried to open a unified casino in Wyandotte County in 1994 but we thwared by the state.
A Kickapoo delegation was in Washington, D.C. last week to protest the Wyandotte plan.
Ms. English said her tribe has petitioned the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs for federal recognition. If it’s granted, it would give the tribe more lout in such disputes. The tribe has more than 400 members, most of whom live in the Kansas City area, she said.
Mark Schoepfle, a cultural anthropologist with the BIA Branch of Acknowledgment and Research, said the petition remains in process.
The Wyandot received a charter of Incorporation from Kansas in 1959 and decided to petition for federal recognition at the recommendation of Assistant Secretary of Interior for Indian Affairs Ada Deer, Ms. English said.
Ms. Deer will make the final decision about federal recognition for the Wyandot, Mr. Schoepfle said.
A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision may make it more difficult for the Wyandotte of Oklahoma to get a casino in Kansas. The high court recently held for the state of Florida in a gaming dspute with the Seminoles. The decision gives states more power to oppose Indian Gaming.
The four resident Kansas tribes already have agrements with the state about casinos, by the Wyandot Nation of Oklahoma does not. Kansas officials indicated after the rulingthat they are not interested in another tribe opening a casino in the state.