Tribal Casino News - 2005
December 23, 2005
The Saginaw Chippewa
Indian Tribe filed a federal lawsuit against the State of Michigan,
seeking a court order recognizing the tribe's sovereignty over six
mid-Michigan, Isabella County townships. The Saginaw Chippewa
Indians own and operate the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Union
Township, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
December 8, 2005
Oral argument was
heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
before Judge Harry Edwards on the remaining issue in the case
concerning the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians' proposed New
Buffalo area casino. The case against the casino was filed by
Taxpayers of Michigan Against Casinos in 2001 and most of the suit
was thrown out in March of 2002. The remaining issue deals with the
environmental economic impact a casino will have on the area. The
court's decision is not expected for several months.
October 5, 2005
A Wayne County
Circuit Court Judge ordered that the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake
Superior Chippewa Indians pay Don Barden $33 million as provided for
in a 2001 agreement between Barden and the tribe. This decision is a
result of Barden suing the tribe for breach of contract in July of
this year when the Lac Vieux Band discontinued payments on Mr.
Barden's portion of the settlement money received as a result of the
tribe's lawsuit concerning the Detroit casino licensing process. The
October 5, 2005, settlement is not a 50/50 split, and allows the Lac
Vieux Band to retain $4.8 million more than provided by the equal
split.
October 5, 2005
Last week, Daniel
Broton, chief financial officer from 2000 to 2002 for the Little
River Band of Ottawa Indians, was indicted by a federal grand jury
in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.
Charges were also filed against Daniel Heller, a Muskegon car-wash
operator. Allegations are that Broton and Heller schemed to defraud
the tribe of more than $500,000.
September 6, 2005
The Gun Lake Tribe of
Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians was granted
leave to intervene in the Michigan Gambling Opposition ("MichGo")
lawsuit concerning the federal government's decision to place the
Gun Lake Tribe's land into trust for a planned Allegan County
casino. Federal District Court Judge John Garrett Penn's opinion
permits the Gun Lake Tribe to intervene and defend the federal
government's decision to take their land into trust.
August 8, 2005
With a 753-344 vote,
the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians elected to keep
incumbent Frank Ettawageshik as Tribal Chairman for four more years.
July 19, 2005
Don Barden filed suit
against the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians
in Wayne County Circuit Court alleging breach of contract for an
alleged agreement whereby the tribe agreed to pay Barden 50 percent
of any settlement payments which came about due to the tribe's suit
regarding the Detroit casino licensing process. Wayne Circuit Judge
Gershwin Drain will preside over the case.
July 13, 2005
At the request of Don
Barden's attorneys, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman dismissed
the Barden lawsuit against the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake
Superior Chippewa Indians.
July 7, 2005
Don Barden filed a
lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake
Superior Chippewa Indians alleging breach of contract. The Barden
suit contends his company, Barden Development Inc., was to receive
50 percent of any settlement payments the tribe received in return
for assistance Barden provided Lac Vieux in its court proceeding to
challenge the Detroit casino licensing procedure. Lac Vieux reached
a settlement agreement with the MotorCity and Greektown casinos and
paid Barden his percentage of the 2004 $3 million payment, but when
the tribe received its $14.5 million payment on July 1, 2005, tribal
attorneys notified Barden that they considered the agreement expired
and no further payments would be forthcoming.
June 30, 2005
The Little Traverse
Bay Bands of Odawa Indians released plans for a new casino resort
facility to replace their Victories Casino. Plans for the new
facility include space for 1,500 gaming machines, an eight-story,
250-room hotel (with a fine-dining restaurant on its roof), a
300-seat, buffet-style restaurant, convention facilities and a
1,000-seat entertainment complex. Planned future amenities include
an indoor pool and multi-level parking garage. The 97-acre new
casino resort site is south of Petoskey off Cemetery Road.
June 28, 2005
Government approval
is being sought by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa
Indians together with the Hannahville-Potawatomi Indian Community,
the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the Lac Vieux Band of Lake
Superior Chippewa Indians for an "off-reservation" gaming facility
in Romulus, Michigan. This type of facility was initially
contemplated in a 1994 agreement between the tribes to share
revenues from an "off-reservation" casino. If the project is
completed, the Bay Mills, Saginaw Chippewa and Sault Ste. Marie
Chippewa tribes will also participate in the revenue sharing.
Romulus City officials have long wanted the economic development
that a casino would bring and realize there are numerous legal and
political issues that will need to be addressed before the project
becomes a reality. Romulus has worked to establish a large tract of
land on I-94 near the Detroit Metropolitan Airport that could
include a new racetrack and other attractions such as a casino.
June 22, 2005
Michigan Attorney
General Mike Cox filed suit against two Michigan American Indian
tribes, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and the Little
River Band of Ottawa Indians, in the U.S. District Court in
Kalamazoo. The complaint alleges the two tribes have withheld their
eight percent electronic gaming revenue payments owed to the state
since 2004. Tribal spokespersons contend that Michigan Lottery's
Club Keno is a commercial casino game and violates a compact
provision which allows only tribes and Detroit's three casinos to
operate such games. The state views Club Keno as an extension of an
existing Keno game the Lottery Bureau was operating at the time the
compacts were signed. Michigan's Lottery Bureau is exempt from the
compact provision because it is not a for-profit, private enterprise
and it does not operate a casino.
June 6, 2005
Governor Granholm
told Gongwer News Service a lawsuit appears necessary to resolve the
dispute with Indian tribes concerning casino revenue payments to the
state. The revenues, earmarked for the Michigan Strategic Fund, have
been put into escrow since 2004 by the Little River Band of Ottawa
Indians and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians. The
tribes assert that Michigan Lottery's Club Keno games violate the
exclusivity clause in their gaming compacts. Governor Granhold said
Michigan's "economic development programs have been hampered by the
lack of casino payments." The two tribes have escrowed approximately
$9.5 million.
May 24, 2005
The Department of
Justice reached an agreement with the New Buffalo-based Taxpayers of
Michigan Against Casinos ("TOMAC") that the land at the site of the
proposed Four Winds Casino will not be put into trust during the
appeal of Judge Robertson's March 24 ruling that was favorable to
the Pokagon Band. In exchange for the postponement of entrusting the
land, which will delay casino construction until after the appeal,
TOMAC agreed to a "fast track" hearing process for its appeal.
May 23, 2005
TOMAC announced
it would appeal U.S. District Court Judge Robertson's recent ruling
that the Dowagiac-based Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians' proposed
casino would not affect the New Buffalo area negatively.
May 13, 2005
Governor Granholm and
the leaders of Michigan's 12 federally recognized Indian tribes
signed an intergovernmental accord affirming their joint commitment
to expand the economic strength of the 12 tribes and Michigan. The
accord calls for governmental and tribal representatives to meet
semi-annually to discuss pooling their economic efforts and avenues
to attract investment and create jobs locally.
May 13, 2005
The Department of
Interior gave the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Gun Lake Band of
Pottawatomi Indians official notice of its intention to accept a
147-acre land parcel in Wayland Township, Allegan County, Michigan,
into trust for a casino development. The property is 25 miles north
of Kalamazoo near the 129th Street and US-131 intersection.
April 29, 2005
Lee Sprague survived
a vote which sought to remove him as Chief of the Little River Band
of Ottawa Indians. After a 13-hour hearing on Friday wherein Sprague
defended himself against the tribal council's list of concerns, a
6-2 vote with one abstention of the tribal council called for his
removal. As 7 votes are required to oust him, Chief Sprague will
continue his job for the time being. His term expires in the spring
of 2007.
April 28, 2005
In response to the
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifting the Lac Vieux Injunction
concerning the three Detroit casino operators building permanent
casinos, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick convened a 4:00 p.m. press
conference during which he told the media, "I want it to be a race
to see who finishes first." While the Mayor did not commit to a
timeline, he stated he expects the permanent casinos to open during
the 2007-2008 fiscal year.
April 28, 2005
The Sixth Circuit
Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio issued an Opinion which will
allow the construction of Detroit's three permanent casinos to move
forward. The decision was issued in the case of Lac Vieux Desert
Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians v The City of Detroit, et al.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals today held: 1) That the lower
court's approval of the Settlement Agreements and Consent Judgment
is affirmed; 2) That all of the remaining appeals of the parties are
dismissed; and 3) That the injunction preventing the construction of
the Detroit casinos is dissolved. The Court also let it be known
that it does not believe that a new selection process is warranted
for the MGM Grand Detroit Casino.
April 23, 2005
Reports from Governor
Granholm's office indicate that, with the Gun Lake Band of
Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians' receipt of
U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs approval to put Wayland Township land
into trust for them for a casino site, the Governor is in favor of
negotiating a gaming compact with the tribe. If the tribe requests a
compact, the state has a six-month period of time within which to
negotiate a Class III compact.
April 18, 2005
The U.S. Bureau of
Indian Affairs approved the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of
Pottawatomi Indians' land-trust proposal for 147 acres in Wayland
Township, south of Grand Rapids in Allegan County. This approval
commences a 30-day public comment time period after which a final
decision will be issued determining whether or not the land will be
taken into trust for the casino the tribe plans on this site.
April 4, 2005
The Little River Band
of Ottawa Indians in Manistee and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of
Odawa Indians of Petoskey contend that Michigan Lottery Club Keno
games violate an "exclusivity" clause in their 1998 compacts with
the state and, therefore, have withheld their 2004 and 2005 casino
revenue sharing payments. The gaming compacts provide that Michigan
receive eight percent of the tribal casinos' electronic gaming
profits semiannually. The tribes maintain that the compacts'
exclusivity clauses limit "electronic games of chance" or
"commercial casino games" to Michigan's Indian casinos and the three
Detroit casinos and that Club Keno is a "commercial casino game."
When meetings with state officials did not resolve the dispute, the
two tribal councils waived legal immunity, permitting the filing of
a law suit in the U.S. District Court.
March 24, 2005
Federal District
Court Judge James Robertson dismissed a lawsuit, attempting to block
the building of a proposed casino complex in New Buffalo, Michigan,
with the claim that a sufficient environmental impact study had not
been conducted. The name of the proposed Pokagon Band of Potawatomi
Indians' casino is to be Four Winds Casino Resort. If Plaintiff
Taxpayers of Michigan Against Casinos does not appeal Judge
Robertson's decision, the Pokagon tribe could begin construction as
soon as the Bureau of Indian Affairs takes the tribe's 675-acre
parcel of land into trust.
February 22, 2005
Without comment, the
U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the Michigan
Supreme Court's June 30, 2004, decision holding that the state
Legislature did not violate Michigan's Constitution when it passed a
resolution in 1998 approving four Indian gaming compacts. Taxpayers
of Michigan against Casinos, an anti-casino group based in New
Buffalo, had appealed the June 30, 2004, decision. The gaming
compacts, signed by Governor Engler, are with New Buffalo's Pokagon
Band of Potawatomi Indians, Mackinaw City and Petoskey's Little
Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, Battle Creek's Huron Band of
Potawatomi Indians, and Manistee's Little River Band of Ottawa
Indians.
February 3, 2005
Counsel for the Lac
Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians notified the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit of its plan to file an
emergency motion to modify injunction. The tribe wishes to prevent
MGM from selling either of its properties prior to a resolution of
the tribe's 1977 lawsuit against the City of Detroit regarding the
City's selection and licensing of the three Detroit casino
operators. The proposed MGM / Mandalay merger necessitates MGM's
sale of one of its Detroit properties due to a Michigan law
preventing more than 10 percent ownership in more than one casino.
While MotorCity Casino and Greektown Casino reached Court-approved
settlement agreements with the Lac Vieux Band in 2004, the MGM Grand
Detroit Casino suit is pending with hearings set for later in 2005.
January, 2005
The Harvard Project
on American Indian Economic Development released a study entitled
American Indians on Reservations: A Databook of Socioeconomic Change
Between the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, as part of a special project it
is conducting on American Indian economic development, a detailed
46-page report on the socioeconomic changes between the 1990 and
2000 censuses. The report is available free online at
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/hpaied.
January 14, 2005
The Greektown Casino
Management Board announced that Chairman of the Sault Ste. Marie
Tribe of Chippewa Indians Aaron Payment and Greektown Casino
management board member and property investor Marvin Beatty are to
be acting Co-CEOs during the search for a new permanent CEO for the
casino. These gentlemen replace Bernard Bouschor, previous Sault
Tribe Chairman and Greektown Casino CEO. The June 2004 tribal vote
resulted in Mr. Payment's election as Chairman of the Sault Ste.
Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
