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 one Native American tribe over another’s construction of a casino on what they said is historic and sacred land.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a judge’s decision that dismissed the lawsuit filed by the Oklahoma-based Muscogee (Creek) Nation over the constriction of the casino in Alabama. The three-judge panel directed the trial judge to do a “claim by claim” analysis of whether officials with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama have sovereign immunity that would prevent them from being sued.

The long-running dispute involves land, known as Hickory Ground, that was home to the Muscogee Nation people before their removal 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 built one of its Wind Creek casinos on the site. The Muscogee Nation 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, principal 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 historical ties to Hickory Ground, while also affirming our sovereign right to seek justice against federal agencies and other entities that violated the laws protecting this sacred land,” Hill said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the Poarch Band said in a statement that the appellate court is simply seeking additional information.

“As the case returns to the District Court, we remain confident in our position. Our focus continues to be 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 demonstrates that tribal sovereignty “is not a license to destroy the sacred places and graves of other sovereign tribal nations.”

The Poarch Band maintains that it too has ancestral ties to Hickory Ground and that they protected the site by setting aside the ceremonial ground and another 17 acres (6.9 hectares) for permanent preservation. The Poarch Band, in an earlier statement, called the case an attack on their tribal sovereignty and likened the dispute “to Alabama plotting to control land in Georgia.”

The decision was handed down about two weeks after oral arguments in the case in Atlanta.