Here are the materials in Fox v. Portico Reality Services (E.D. Va.):
economic development
Golden Feather Smokeshop Defendants Held in Civil Contempt
Here is the order: Order on Civil Contempt
Seneca Business Wins TRO against Enforcement of PACT Act
Here’s the short opinion in Red Earth LLC v. United States (W.D. N.Y.): Order – TRO (06-28-10).
And here’s the motion: Red Earth Motion for TRO
Little River Withdraws Petition for Land into Trust, Will Likely Resubmit
From 6/25/10 MIRS (subscription only):
Feds Nix Indian Casino Expansion, For Now
At least for the time being, the U.S. Department of the Interior delayed a Michigan Native American tribe’s plan to move forward with a casino project near the site of the now-defunct Great Lakes Downs Racetrack near Muskegon.
The Little River Band of Chippewa Indians wants to open a casino on the Great Lakes Downs location. The tribe was one of the four tribes that compacted with the state in 1998 for the right to operate class III (Las Vegas style) casinos. It currently operates a casino in Manistee.
Because the location is not within current tribal boundaries, there are several hurdles the tribe would need to clear in order to operate a casino at the Muskegon site. One hurdle has already been cleared. On March 19, Gov. Jennifer GRANHOLM signed two amendments to the state’s compact with the Little River band that would let it build the new casino.
The Governor attached her signature after a deal was negotiated between her administration and the tribe.
“It would mean considerable revenues,” John WERNET, deputy legal counsel told MIRS today. “The good news would be that this would mean more dollars for the School Aid Fund (SAF). The bad news is that this would take years before it happened.”
The next step would be to have the Legislature approve one of the amendments. This is HCR 0054, sponsored by Rep. Doug BENNETT (D-Muskegon), which is currently before the House Regulatory Reform Committee.
Meanwhile, the other amendment to the compact was sent to the U.S. Department of Interior for approval. That’s where the project hit a roadblock.
Continue reading
Ninth Circuit Allows EEOC Claim against Peabody Coal to Proceed; EEOC and Navajo May Seek Injunctive Relief
Ah, Rule 19!
Here is Judge William Fletcher’s opinion in EEOC v. Peabody Coal. Here are the briefs.
And supplemental authority filed by the Navajo Nation: Austin v Andrus Brief.
Update on False Claims Act Charges against Two Menominee Individuals
In the last update here, we reported that the tribal defendants in the federal False Claims Act case, United States v. Menominee Tribal Enterprises (W.D. Wis.), had been dismissed out. Two individuals remained. They were acquitted in a jury trial — Jury Verdict Form.
They then filed for attorney fees under the Equal Justice Act. The motion was denied: DCT Order Denying Atty Fees.
NYTs on Shinnecock Recognition
From the NYTs:
There’s no irony or attitude at the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum, just the whaling artifacts, the carved elk on the front door, the portraits and memorabilia of a people whose history on Long Island goes back thousands of years.
Still, only a deity with a perverse sense of humor could have written the story of the Shinnecocks, which entered a new era on Tuesday when a 32-year legal effort culminated in the formal federal recognition of the tribe.
You could start with the locale: how the bays and beaches the Shinnecocks and their ancestors fished and nurtured for millennia morphed into not just the Hamptons, but some of the richest and snootiest precincts there. That left the Shinnecocks strangers in their own land, a largely poor tribe of 1,200 with an 800-acre reservation tucked amid the lime-green slacks, the $36 lobster roll (Silver’s on Main Street) and the perma-tan, perma-thin habitués of this playground of the seriously rich.
Then there’s been the long legal dance and periodic skirmishes over the tribe’s nuclear option: its threat to build a casino on the reservation that could have turned the standard East End gridlock into a graveyard of permanently immobilized Lexuses, Range Rovers and BMWs.
And now, with the economy still in the tank and development hard to come by, the outsiders at the banquet are the ones holding all the chips. The courting and wooing for what could be one of New York State’s biggest economic projects in many years have been going on quietly for some time.
But the action begins in earnest next month, when, 30 days after the designation, the tribe can start taking official steps to build what could be New York’s answer to Connecticut’s mega-casinos.
Great Lakes Tribal Energy Workshop — June 22-23, 2010
Runyon v. River Rock Entertainment Authority–Tribal Immunity Forecloses Employment Arbitration
Here is the unpublished opinion from the California Court of Appeals. River Rock is owned by the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians.
Yavapai Nation Sues Steptoe & Johnson over Investment Losses
Here is the complaint.
News coverage at Courthouse News Service via Indianz:
PHOENIX (CN) – The Fort McDowell Yavapai tribe claims it lost tens of millions of dollars after attorney at Steptoe & Johnson did not notify it that they had changed terms on loans the tribe had made. The tribe claims it did not have any experience in commercial lending, and Steptoe & Johnson knew that when it began representing the Yavapai in 2005.
In its complaint in Maricopa County Court, the tribe says it borrowed money from its $50 million margin account to fund three loans. When the borrowers defaulted, the tribe says, it lost most of its money.
In 2007, the tribe and Fort McDowell Enterprises say they loaned $16 million to Silverhawk Commons “for the purposes of paying off debt secured by the property and to provide pre-development funds for the development of a 45-acre business park located in Murrieta, Calif.”
The loan guaranty, procured by Drew Ryce with Steptoe & Johnson, guaranteed only losses that the “nation would suffer as a result of certain acts by the guarantors named in the Silverhawk guaranty” and excluded any losses the nation “would suffer as a result of nonpayment by Silverhawk of the Silverhawk loan,” according to the complaint.
Neither the tribe nor Fort McDowell Enterprises received a copy of the guaranty, they claim.
The tribe claims Steptoe & Johnson authorized changes in loan terms without tribal approval. The Yavapai claim the changes included unreasonably high fees that “were paid to third parties that did not benefit the project”; that the loan provided for more than 100 percent financing; and that “the loan was grossly under-collateralized.” Silverhawk Commons defaulted and filed for bankruptcy in 2009, costing the nation its investment, according to the complaint.
Steptoe & Johnson knew that the tribe was using money borrowed “from a credit line obtained by margining its stock and bond investment portfolio,” and knew that the nation “had no knowledge of the risks incurred in commercial lending, such as those reflected in the loans,” but failed to secure tribal approval for changes in the loan term, the tribe claims.
Also, the tribe and We-Ka-Jassa Investment Fund loaned $17.8 million to Mammoth Specialty Lodging after Ryce, the tribe’s general counsel, “assured the tribal council that ‘on the Mammoth deal we are going to make $6-$7 million for sure,'” according to the complaint. But after the tribal council approved the loan, it claims, several changes were made without its approval.
The tribe claims the Mammoth loan “was grossly under-collateralized; it lacked appropriate guaranties; it failed to reflect the completion of adequate due diligence; it reflected the disbursement of excessive fees to the borrower, or to parties associated with or affiliated with the borrower; there was inadequate borrower equity in the project; and no provision was made for repayment of the loan.”
Turtle Talk 
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