In the state of Oklahoma, two federally-recognized tribes had their membership status in the major Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association temporarily suspended and the suspension will last at least by the end of this year. This news came shortly after the two federally-recognized tribes in Oklahoma have inked fully updated gaming compacts with the state’s Governor’s office.
According to one report released by The Oklahoman and Tulsa World news outlets, the first federally-recognized tribe to be suspended from the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association is the Comanche Nation Tribe which just last month revised its fifteen-year deal that they had with the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association. According to the terms and conditions of this deal, the federally-recognized tribe agreed to pay a collection of exclusivity fees in order to be given necessary permissions to construct and operate up to three new gambling-friendly venues.
Nonetheless, as reported by the Tulsa World news outlet, these recently updated gaming compacts resulted in openly displayed anger form eleven other federally-recognized tribes in the state of Oklahoma which are still very much engaged in federal lawsuits that relate to contention which had their previous fifteen-year business arrangements renewed automatically back in Decembers of 2019.
Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria Tribes Suspended
As mentioned at the beginning, the casino-operating, federally-recognized Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria Tribe are the two recently suspended members of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association. Chairman of this association Matthew Morgan issued one declaration in that he revealed that this federally-recognized tribe has been suspended temporarily from the association following the recent alteration of the association’s by-laws.
According to this, the tribe has to wait until December of this year before being able to ask for re-admission. In his official statement, Matthew Morgan said that this was a rather difficult decision, but also the right one to make. He also added that the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association always works best when all of its members are reliable and trustworthy and when all of its members work side by side to support the casino gaming industry in the state of Oklahoma as a whole.
For their part, Otoe-Missouria’s Chairman John Shotton said in one of his official statements that his tribe had already inked its fully revised business agreement with the state’s governor and it has plans to follow the entire federal process for the negotiated gaming compact approval.
He also added that regardless of the decision of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association, there are no hierarchies of Indian country’s sovereign nations. This means that every tribe has the necessary rights to negotiate the very gaming compact that is available. He finished its official press release by saying that Otoe-Missouria remains supportive of other tribes and their fights for the best gaming compacts.
Casinos Operated by the Tribes
The Comanche Nation is a federally-recognized Native-American tribe whose territory mainly consists of tribal lands in Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado while the tribe is officially based in Lawton, Oklahoma. The tribal organization operates ten smoke shops and four casinos including the Lawton-based Comanche Nation Casino venue as well as Comanche Red River Casino located in Devol, Elgin-based Comanche Spur Casino, and Walters-based Comanche Star Casino.
The Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians federally-recognized tribal organization also located in the state of Oklahoma operates five casinos including its 7 Clans Paradise Casino located in Red Rick, Newkirk-based First Council Casino, Lil’ Bit of Paradise Casino also located in Newkirk and Lil’ Bit of Paradise Casino located in Red Rock.
