TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma – After the U.S. Department of Interior withdrew its approval for placing 2.03 acres of land into trust for United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians gaming operations, Chief Joe Bunch said the tribe isn’t giving up. But the decision, according to Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., affirms that the UKB never had a historical “reservation,” but rather was created by an Act of Congress in 1946 and chartered in 1950.

Both tribes are based in Tahlequah; while the UKB requires one-quarter degree Cherokee blood for citizenship, Cherokee Nation citizens must be able to trace an ancestor to the Dawes Rolls.

The plot of land where the UKB had previously had a casino has been tied up in litigation, as the Cherokee Nation challenged a decision to take the land into trust. Former DOI Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Larry Echohawk approved acquisition of the property in 2012, saying the land qualified for gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and because the parcel was within the former reservation of the UKB.

However, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma issued a different decision in 2020, finding that Echohawk’s acquisition of the property was “arbitrary and capricious,” and that the Cherokee Nation’s “former reservation” is not the “former reservation” of the UKB under the same provisions of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Furthermore, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland said the U.S. Supreme Court’s McGirt decision and other cases confirming the Cherokee Nation reservation have changed the legal landscape of Oklahoma.

“These unprecedented new developments in Oklahoma require the department to conduct a novel analysis of the status of the former reservation of the UKB,” Newland wrote.

According to the letter, the UKB will be allowed to submit a new application for land in trust.

The tribe still has 76 acres of land put into trust by the federal government, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit vacated an injunction in September stopping the UKB’s land from being placed in trust. A petition for rehearing filed by CN was then denied, which led the CN to petition the Supreme Court to hear the case. It, too, was denied, allowing the UKB to put sign the deed.

Bunch said the 76 acres in trust stand is a testament to the commitment of the federal government to ensure no sister tribe can veto the UKB’s right to exercise jurisdiction over its own trust lands.

“Because of the real-world repercussions of the United States decision in the McGirt case, we have fully understood and expected for months that the Department of the Interior would have to withdraw its prior decision so that a new decision could be considered in light of McGirt,” Bunch said. “Nothing in the action taken by the Department of the Interior today should be viewed, even if suggested otherwise by others, as a change in our strong legal position that the UKB has as much right to possess trust land and to game upon it as any other tribe with historical presence upon the historic Cherokee Nation. We continue to fully expect our legal position to prevail.”

The UKB has long asserted that both it and the Cherokee Nation are “successors in interest” to the historic Cherokee Nation. But Cherokee Nation officials disagree.

While CN Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said the two tribes are “inextricably linked” by lineage, he asserts that the UKB has never had a reservation, and that its creation through an act of Congress decades ago is “wholly irrelevant to understanding Cherokee Nation’s legal status, its reservation and its treaties.”

“Issues relating to our reservation, treaties and jurisdiction are uniquely and exclusively within Cherokee Nation’s authority, including our obligations and opportunities under the historic McGirt and Hogner decisions,” Hoskin said in a statement. “In view of all of this, Cherokee Nation welcomes the DOI’s determination. … As chief, I am duty bound to protect and defend the Constitution of the Cherokee Nation and our treaties. I will continue to do so as we move forward in our relationship with the UKB.”

While the UKB does not recognize dual enrollment, Hoskin said CN welcomes those tribal members, and expressed the hope they can find “common cause” with issues such as education, health care and language preservation.

Bunch said the UKB Council also “prefer collaboration over conflict, but it takes two willing parties to make that a reality.”