FT. SILL APACHE TRIBE FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST FEDS TO GET PERMISSION TO OPEN A CASINO IN SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO
The Oklahoma based Ft. Sill Apache tribe seems to be inching its way toward getting approval to open a casino at Akela Flats, a 30 acre land parcel between Deming and Las Cruces, New Mexico. The predecessors to the Ft. Sill Apache tribe, the Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apache tribes, lived in southwestern New Mexico before the 1880’s and had been defeated in their battle with the US Army. They were then transported out of New Mexico, and resettled in Florida and Oklahoma.
The tribe has been operating the Apache Casino in Lawton, Oklahoma, since 1999. They have been working persistently to get approval from the state of New Mexico and the Department of the Interior to get permission to open a second casino on Highway 10 in southern New Mexico since at least 2001, when the Department of the Interior took the Akela Flats parcel to be placed into lands in trust, the first step toward casino ownership.
The tribe had been illegally operating bingo games at their Homeland Casino at Akela Flats in 2009, when the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) forced them to close down.
Part of the requirements for obtaining permission to operate Class III casino style gambling is recognition as a legitimate tribe in the state in which they plan to operate the casino. Both the Richardson and the Martinez administrations refused to recognize the Ft. Sill Apaches as a legitimate New Mexico tribe, so the tribe took the state government to the New Mexico Supreme Court in April of 2014 to get recognition as a New Mexico tribe. The court took fifteen minutes to give a unanimous decision to grant them recognition as a valid state tribe. They achieved their second step.
In most instances, for the BIA to approve off-reservation casinos, the Department of the Interior requires that tribes wanting to build casinos have continuous physical presence, as well as political continuity in the area, and for the state governor and the Department of the Interior to approve the casino. Interior refused to give permission to the Jemez Pueblo to build a casino in Anthony, New Mexico because there were not significant tribal members there, and the distance from their traditional tribal land was hundreds of miles. The proposed Akela Flats casino is not only more hundreds of miles from the Ft. Sill tribal center, but across state lines.
The tribe filed a suit in federal court on Monday, June 9, 2014 to try to force the NIGC to reverse its position of opposition to their request for a casino at Akela Flats. If the NIGC approves their request to have a casino, they will have achieved their third step. Governor Martinez will be under huge pressure to negotiate a gambling compact with the tribe.
If the governor approves the proposed tribal compact, there will undoubtedly be more requests from other tribes to open off-reservation casinos in the state, possibly in major towns, such as Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Las Cruces.
An article in the Santa Fe New Mexican gave other information on the court case. A copy of the Ft. Sill Apache legal brief can be read here.
