A federal judge has again ruled in favor of a Native American tribe that last year opened a western Iowa casino that competes with bigger outfits sanctioned by the state.

U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Ross wrote in an order Monday that she would not overturn a decision by the National Indian Gaming Commission, which granted the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska the right to operate a casino. The attorneys general of Nebraska and Iowa, as well as the city of Council Bluffs, have tried to block and shut down Prairie Flower Casino in Carter Lake since 2007.

In March, Ross ruled that an earlier decision by the federal gaming commission was mostly legal. But she ordered the commission to review one specific aspect of the case: In 2002, an attorney representing the tribe signed a pledge not to bring gambling to the Carter Lake property. The commission ruled in April that the pledge did not block the tribe from changing course.

"The Summary Judgment Order is final," Ross wrote in her decision Monday.

In a statement, Ponca Tribe Chairman Larry Wright Jr. asked the states and Council Bluffs to move beyond the case. The tribe opened Prairie Flower Casino in November, while the civil case was pending.

"It's time to put the lawsuits behind us and focus on our shared interests of bringing more economic growth," Wright said.

Council Bluffs City Attorney Dick Wade did not return a call or email seeking comment Tuesday. Representatives of the attorneys general offices in Iowa and Nebraska said they were not sure whether they would take the case to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Financial interests of neighbors

Five miles north of three state-regulated gambling outfits in Council Bluffs, Prairie Flower Casino poses a threat. The three businesses — Ameristar, Harrah's and Horseshoe Casino — grossed a combined $404 million in revenue in fiscal year 2019, according to the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.

The casinos paid about $82.8 million in state taxes, plus another $2 million in taxes to Council Bluffs. The city's mayor, Matt Walsh, told the Register in November that gambling is key to the city's growth. In addition to taxes, customers spend money at hotels, restaurants and gas stations.

But Prairie Flower is a much smaller operation. With an investment of $10 million, it is only 9,500 square feet. That's less than a third of the size of a Council Bluff casino.

The Ponca Tribe has discussed adding a 150-bed hotel and 50 table games, but so far the casino has just 200 slot machines. Because of the type of license it has received from the state, the Prairie Flower Casino allows customers to compete only against each other, as opposed to betting against the house.

In a guest column for the Register in May, Carter Lake Mayor Ron Cumberledge said the business will help support the city of 3,800 residents. The Ponca Tribe has pledged to give $775,000 to the city every year, about 12% of the local government's budget.

"Prairie Flower Casino is critical to the future growth of Carter Lake and to the Tribe's ability to sustain critical services to its tribal members and the community," Cumberledge wrote.

History of a people, city

Carter Lake once sat on the east side of the Missouri River. But during a flood in 1877, the river changed course, and Carter Lake found itself on the Nebraska side. (Amid controversy, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1892 that Carter Lake still belonged to Iowa.)

The same year, the U.S. Army forcibly removed the Ponca Tribe from its native land in northern Nebraska. Eleven members of the tribe died during the journey to present-day Oklahoma, including the chief's daughter, Prairie Flower, the namesake for the casino.

In the mid-1960s, Congress stripped the Ponca Tribe of its federally recognized tribal status, dividing the land among individual members. The federal government restored tribal status in 1990.

The tribe purchased 4.8 acres in Carter Lake in 1999, and the federal gaming commission first granted the tribe's request to build a casino there in 2007. Council Bluffs, Iowa and Nebraska sued the commission, and a U.S. District Court judge sided with the governments. (Nebraska, which has not legalized casinos, opposed the plan because the property was so close to Omaha. It sits a couple of blocks from downtown and a mile from the airport.)

The 8th Circuit remanded the case to the gaming commission, which again sided with the tribe in 2017. The governments appealed again in December 2017, but the tribe opened the Prairie Flower Casino in November, anyway.

The states and Council Bluffs argued that the tribe couldn't build a casino in Carter Lake because the property was about 200 miles south of the land the tribe occupied in the 1800s. According to the federal legislation that governs Native American gambling businesses, tribes can build casinos on "restored lands."

The governments' lawyers argued Prairie Flower Casino does not actually sit on "restored land." But the gaming commission disagreed with this argument twice, including in April, after the U.S. District Court asked the commission to look at the question once more.

"Since the parcel is within the aboriginal territory of the tribe and the tribe possess modern connections to it," the commission wrote, "... the parcel is restored lands."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tyler Jett covers jobs and the economy for the Register. Contact him at 515-284-8215 and tjett@registermedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.

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