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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Opponents of the Seneca Indian Nation's plan to build a casino in Buffalo say the land the Senecas bought is not sovereign territory _ and even if it were, a casino there would be illegal.
The arguments are contained in federal court filings this week by a coalition that includes religious and preservationist groups, lawmakers, businesses, homeowners and others opposed to the casino plans.
Citizens Against Casino Gambling in Erie County is seeking to stop construction of the $125 million casino. The group's January lawsuit charges that Interior Secretary Gale Norton and other federal officials evaded or misapplied laws governing the siting of Indian casinos, the environment and historic preservation when they approved casino plans negotiated by Gov. George Pataki and the Senecas.
A separate lawsuit in state Supreme Court challenges the casino on environmental grounds.
Norton and the other defendants have asked U.S. District Judge William Skretny to throw out the federal suit, arguing among other things that federal law shields the government from legal action in cases where it holds land for Indian tribes.
The two sides are sparring over the definition of Indian lands under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988.
Also at issue is whether a casino should be allowed even if the property is found to meet the legal threshold for sovereign territory. Opponents say no because of a provision in the IGRA that generally prohibits gaming on lands acquired by tribes after 1988. The Senecas bought the nine-acre Buffalo parcel in 2005.
The government says this case is an exception to the no-gambling provision because the Senecas acquired the land as part of the Seneca Nation Settlement Act of 1990, which was meant to compensate the tribe for an unfair, century-old lease agreement.
Skretny is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case in October.
"Their whole claim to sovereignty is, in my view, a myth," said Joseph Finnerty, an attorney for the coalition, "and we're asking the federal court to step in and pull back the curtain and expose the truth behind what is really the status of that land."
The tribe is not named as a defendant in either the federal or state court lawsuits.
The Buffalo casino would be the Senecas' third and final casino allowed under their 2002 compact with Pataki.
In its most recent earnings report in May, the Seneca Gaming Corp. reported second-quarter profits of $32.1 million from its existing casinos in Niagara Falls and on reservation land in Salamanca, a 48 percent increase over the same period a year earlier. Revenues for the quarter were up 22 percent, to $129.3 million.
Nationwide, the country's 408 Indian gambling facilities brought in $22.6 billion in revenue last year. The vast majority of tribal casinos have been built on existing reservations, but some three dozen are in places that weren't Indian land in 1988, and many more tribes are seeking to develop property off their reservations.
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