Ponca Tribe weighs gaming at Carter Lake

By Travis Coleman
Sioux City Journal

NIOBRARA, Neb. — The Ponca Tribe is considering starting a gaming operation on five acres of trust land at Carter Lake in Pottawattamie County, Iowa.

Tribal officials sent a letter to members Jan. 11 inviting them to speak about a recent National Indian Gaming

Commission decision authorizing gaming on the parcel, which has been held in trust by the federal government since 2003. A meeting is set for 1 p.m. Jan. 26 at the Norfolk, Neb., tribal offices.

The gaming commission decision says the Carter Lake land is eligible for gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act because it was taken into trust as part of the tribe’s restoration. The decision overturned an earlier commission ruling that the land wasn’t taken into trust for gaming under federal Bureau of Indian Affairs regulations.

“The Tribe is pleased with the NIGC’s ruling and looks forward to exploring its right to game under IGRA in a manner that will provide significant benefits for the Tribe, the State of Iowa, and the City of Carter Lake,” Tribal Chairman Larry Wright Jr. wrote in the letter.

Phone messages left for Wright seeking further comment Wednesday afternoon were not immediately returned.
When the Ponca Tribe’s federal recognition was restored in 1990, the tribe was granted service areas rather than reservation land. The tribe has offices at service areas in Carter Lake, Sioux City, Omaha, Lincoln, Norfolk and Niobrara.

The tribe didn’t plan to start a gaming operation at Carter Lake, but other economic ventures weren’t successful, Wright said in the letter.

He wrote that gaming will help with the tribe’s economic development, self-sufficiency and governmental operations. The Ponca Tribe has more than 2,500 members in Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa.

The Dec. 31 decision came days before the BIA tightened regulations for tribes applying to start off-reservation casinos, rules that would have applied to the Carter Lake land. In the 18-page decision, gaming commissioners criticized the tribe for saying during the restoration process that it didn’t intend to run a gaming operation at Carter Lake, then changing its mind. But they added there was nothing they could do to punish the tribe.

“After careful consideration, the Tribal Council determined that it had a responsibility to explore its right to conduct gaming under IGRA as a means to ensure the health and welfare of the Ponca Tribe and its people,” Wright said in the letter.

Also in the letter, Wright asks tribal members not to talk to the news media but to refer questions to tribal headquarters.

“Not everybody will be happy to hear about this Ponca success and you can help us protect the good news this brings to the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska,” the letter says.