Tribe that wants to operate casino in Illinois files lawsuit for land

Monday, June 5, 2000 | 9:53 a.m.

In its lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis, the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma claims it never gave up the land in east-central Illinois in 1805 as part of a treaty with the United States.

The tribe was one of several tribes that had talked to state officials in recent years about their claims to land in the state in an effort to allow their members to live there and develop and operate casinos.

In a news release sent to The (Bloomington) Pantagraph, the tribe said the lawsuit is the result of the refusal of state officials to "negotiate a just resolution" to its claim.

Still, the chief, Floyd Leonard, said he wants to continue to talk with state officials. "It is my hope, since the state of Illinois allows gaming, a possible solution to our land claim could be negotiated," he said.

Leonard said the tribe brought its claim to the land to then-Gov. Jim Edgar in 1996. In fact, in 1998, it was reported that American Indian representatives had been talking privately for more than a year with state officials about claiming land in northwest and east-central Illinois.

By 1998, a spokesman for Edgar made it clear the state would not willingly give up land or money to the tribes. "The contention of the state is they (the tribes) don't have a legitimate claim to make, that there are no indigenous Native American tribes existing in Illinois nor have there been for over 100 years," Edgar spokesman Thomas Hardy said at the time.

As a result, state officials said they believed the tribes would sue.

The Miami tribe, which says it once hunted and lived in Illinois, Ohio and Indiana, claims in its lawsuit that the tribe gave up to the United States almost all of its Midwest land for $600 in a treaty of 1805. But, the suit contends, the tribe did not give up the land along the Wabash River.

The tribe said the land, which stretches across parts of 15 counties, is worth an estimated $30 billion. The counties are: Champaign, Clark, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham, Ford, Iroquois, Jasper, Livingston, Moultrie, Shelby and Vermilion.

Dave Urbanek, a spokesman for Gov. George Ryan, said Monday that state officials had spoken with the tribe about its concerns. Urbanek said the governor's office believes the lawsuit lacks merit and will provide its research on the issue to any landowner who is sued.

"What they want is something we can't give them," Urbanek said. "They want to build a casino in Illinois, and we're under no obligation to give them land for a casino."

The tribe has been involved in a similar legal battle in Kansas.