Two Native American tribes in Alabama are facing off in an appeals court in a dispute over one tribe’s construction of a casino on land that the other tribe claimed as sacred.
The Associated Press reported the dispute involves Hickory Ground, land that was home to the Muscogee Nation before it was forcibly removed by the federal government to Oklahoma on the notorious Trail of Tears. Today, the site is owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, which constructed one of its Wind Creek casinos on the land.
The Muscogee Nation claimed the Poarch Band broke a legal promise to protect the site when they removed the remains of 57 Muscogee ancestors to build their casino. The Poarch Band is countering that the Muscogee Nation is trying to dictate how the tribe uses its land.
“Hickory Ground is sacred,” said Mary Kathryn Nagle, an attorney representing the Muscogee Nation, in a presentation before a three-judge panel.
A federal district court judge dismissed the Muscogee Nation lawsuit, and the tribe is seeking to overturn that ruling.
“This is about more than just a legal battle,” said Muscogee Principal Chief David Hill. “This is about our ancestors, our cultural identity, and the future of Native rights across the United States.”
Mark Reeves an attorney representing Poarch Band officials, argued that “any entity, most especially another tribe, would be allowed to assume control over land it does not own is antithetical to tribal sovereignty and American values.”
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