Appeals court revives lawsuit in fight between 2 tribes over Alabama casino
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A federal appeals court on Friday revived a lawsuit filed by a Native American tribe over another tribe’s construction of a casino on what they say is historic and sacred land.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a judge’s decision that dismissed the lawsuit filed by the Oklahoma-based Muscogee (Creek) Nation over the Alabama casino chokehold. The three-judge panel ordered the judge to analyze “claim by claim” whether officials of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama have sovereign immunity that would prevent them from being brought to justice.
The long-running dispute At issue is land known as Hickory Ground, which was home to the Muscogee Nation people before they were moved to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. The Poarch Band, a separate tribal nation that shares ancestry with the Muscogee, now owns the land and has built one of its Wind Creek casinos on the property. The Muscogee Nation has filed a lawsuit against Poarch officials, the Department of the Interior and others over the excavation of graves and development of the site.
David Hill, chief of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, called the decision a monumental victory for the tribe.
“The Eleventh Circuit’s decision reaffirms our nation’s sacred and historic ties to Hickory Ground, while also affirming our sovereign right to seek justice against federal agencies and other entities that violated the laws that protect this sacred land” , Hill said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the Poarch Band said in a statement that the appeals court is simply seeking additional information.
“As the case returns to court, we remain confident in our position. Our focus remains on protecting the interests of the Poarch Creek community and upholding our sovereign rights,” Kristin Hellmich, a spokeswoman for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, wrote in an emailed statement.
The Muscogee Nation argued that Poarch tribal officials broke a legal promise to protect the site when they purchased it from a private landowner in 1980 with the help of a historic preservation grant. Mary Kathryn Nagle, an attorney for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, said in a statement that the ruling shows that tribal sovereignty “is not a license to destroy the sacred sites and graves of other sovereign tribal nations.”
The Poarch Band claims that it too has ancestral ties to Hickory Ground and that they have protected the site by setting aside the ceremonial grounds and another 17 acres for permanent preservation. The Poarch Band in an earlier statement called the case an attack on their tribal sovereignty and likened the dispute “to a plot by Alabama to control land in Georgia.”
The decision was handed down about two weeks after oral arguments in the case in Atlanta.