Wyandotte Tribe wins legal battle over gaming operations on contested Kansas land

The Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a 2020 legal decision, ruling that the Wyandotte Tribe can proceed with gaming operations on a disputed ten-acre parcel of land in the State of Kansas. The court ruling, filed on July 3, 2023, marks the end of a three-decade-long dispute over the land.

The contested parcel, known as the Park City Parcel, was purchased by the Wyandotte Tribe in 1992 for $25,000. This acquisition was part of a 1984 congressional enactment that allocated $3 million in damages to the tribe, resulting from treaties that displaced the Wyandot people from their ancestral lands.

As part of the distribution, $100,000 was designated for the tribe to purchase lands for the Secretary of the Interior to take into trust. The tribe sought trust status for the Park City Parcel in 1993 and 2008, with the intention of establishing gaming operations upon approval.

However, the State of Kansas opposed the tribe's efforts, questioning the validity of the purchase and arguing that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) did not allow for gaming on the land.

In 2020, the Secretary of the Interior dismissed the state's objections, approving the trust application and granting permission for gaming operations on the Park City Parcel. The district court upheld this decision, and now the Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed it.

According to the appeals court ruling, the Secretary of the Interior was legally obliged to take the Park City Parcel into trust and allow gaming operations under IGRA's settlement-of-a-land-claim exception.

This ruling marks a significant victory for the Wyandotte Tribe, resolving their longstanding battle over the land. The tribe can now proceed with setting up a new gaming operation, expected to bring substantial revenue to its community.