LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – The Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma said it’s willing to sign an agreement that it won’t build a casino on a 160-acre tract of property it owns in Pulaski County if the land is taken into federal trust.

Tribe Chairman John L. Berrey said if an agreement prohibiting a casino would make people happy, he’d sign one.

“That would be totally fine with us because that’s not our intention,” he said, noting that a tribal business committee declared the land sacred Friday in a resolution. “Which emphasizes even more that we don’t want to game on it.

“Everybody thinks the sky is falling, and in reality all we’re trying to do is protect our heritage,” he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Some officials have worried the tribe would eventually apply to build a casino or gaming facility on the property, even though tribal officials have said a casino is not in its immediate plans.

The property is near the Arkansas River east of Little Rock on the former Thibault Plantation. It contains graves of Quapaws and former slaves, in addition to Quapaw artifacts that the Thibaults once collected.

The land is just south of the $800 million Little Rock Port Industrial Park, which is seeking to expand.

The tribe purchased the land in two, 80-acre deals in 2013 and 2014 for $1.4 million. It applied last December to place the land into federal trust, which would give the government the title to the land but allow the tribe to exercise jurisdiction over it with little respect to state and local laws. The tribe would have to file a separate application for gambling.

Some officials who had initially criticized the tribe’s plan welcomed the compromise.

Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde had expressed opposition to the trust application in May, saying he didn’t want to lose part of the county.

But on Friday, he said the tribe’s willingness to sign an agreement banning a casino and potentially other uses is “pretty significant,” and encouraged the tribe to meet with community members to develop a memorandum of understanding between them.

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Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, http://www.arkansasonline.com