TULSA, Okla. – After hearing more than five hours of arguments Friday, Northern District Judge Gregory Frizzell will announce Monday afternoon whether he will grant a preliminary injunction from the Cherokee Nation to block another tribe’s pending land in trust acquisition.

The Cherokee Nation, headquartered in Tahlequah, requested the injunction after the Department of the Interior announced its plans to take a 2.03-acre parcel of fee land into trust for the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, also headquartered in Tahlequah. The property is home to the tribe’s lone casino.

According to the DOI’s announcement, the land into trust acquisition will be completed by Wednesday if the injunction is not granted. In a July 2012 decision to allow the UKB’s application, then-acting Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Michael Black wrote that the UKB had met the federal requirements for acquiring land into trust, effectively giving the two tribes co-jurisdiction over 14 counties in northeastern Oklahoma.

In order to get the injunction, the Cherokee Nation had to prove that allowing the UKB to take the property into trust would cause irreparable harm to the larger tribe. After listening to several hours of arguments about whether the UKB’s casino has damaged the Cherokee Nation’s sovereignty and Tahlequah casino, Frizzell said it was not exhaustively demonstrated.  

“I have to tell you, after reading the briefs, I’m not thoroughly convinced,” Frizzell told Cherokee Nation Entertainment attorney David Keglovits.

Opened in 1986 as Keetoowah Bingo, the casino directly employs 150 people and funds the paychecks of more than 70 tribal government employees.

“If this injunction is allowed, 150 people will be thrown out of work at the casino,” UKB attorney Jim McMillin said. “That would be an economic tragedy for the city of Tahlequah.

“If you decline their motion, these folks will still be working today, tomorrow and so on.”

Despite the UKB’s presentation to the court of the casino’s economic impact to the tribe, the Cherokee Nation and CNE were not allowed to introduce a letter into evidence from CNE’s finance department speculating on the continued effect of having two gaming establishments in Tahlequah. Attorneys for both the DOI and the UKB objected, claiming the letter was overbroad and not offered as evidence until after the close of business on Thursday, the day before the hearing.

The Cherokee Nation’s request for a temporary restraining order, also filed with the preliminary injunction motion, was dismissed early in the hearing.

As per a $2 million settlement reached last year with the state of Oklahoma and extended earlier this summer, the UKB must get the casino property placed into trust by the end of this month or close it down. Two alternatives have been offered by the Cherokee Nation’s executive branch that would allow the casino to stay open without the UKB taking any property into trust but no decision has been announced on either proposal.