“We can no longer sit on the sidelines as our rights under our compact are about to be determined without us.” - Terri Patton President, Wichita and Affiliated Tribes
OKLAHOMA CITY — With mediation now looming, the number of tribes suing Gov. Kevin Stitt over the status of Oklahoma’s gaming compact is now up to 14.
Within the span of a week, the Quapaw Nation, Delaware Nation, the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Comanche Nation, the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians, Ponca Tribe, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians and the Kialegee Tribal Town all joined the lawsuit initially filed by the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations on New Year’s Eve over whether the state’s gaming compact has expired. Friday was the court-ordered deadline for additional tribes to join the litigation.
In a press statement, Pres- ident Terri Parton with the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes said her tribe had to get involved not only to defend its compact rights, but those of other tribes that could not act quickly enough to join the lawsuit. The Anadarko-based tribe has about 3,300 citizens and operates two casinos in Caddo County. “We can no longer sit on the sidelines as our rights under our compact are about to be determined without us,” she said. “Unfortunately, the very short deadline made it impossible for many tribes to act as we did. We are determined to not only put this matter to rest for us, but for those who could not intervene in time.”
Of the 14 tribes in the lawsuit, 11 have at least one casino with Class III gaming. The Ponca Tribe, headquartered in White Eagle, has a casino under construction along I-35. Neither the Kialegee Tribal Town and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, the two tribes who signed a compact extension offered by Gov. Stitt in late 2019, currently have a casino, although not for lack of trying. The former attempted twice to open a casino in Broken Arrow while the latter previously operated a bingo hall in Tahlequah.
After a pre-trial hearing on Feb. 10, Judge Timothy DeGuisti ordered Gov. Stitt and the tribes to pursue mediation in dueling lawsuits over the status of the model state-tribal gaming compact. On Friday, the court named Layn Phillips as the mediator with the understanding that most, if not all of the talks to be completed by March 31. Additionally, under the terms of Judge DeGuisti’s order, neither Gov. Stitt nor any of the involved tribes are allowed to publicly discuss