{"id":3722,"date":"2024-10-14T21:14:26","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T21:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/?p=3722"},"modified":"2024-11-21T11:00:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T11:00:43","slug":"muscogee-nation-scores-win-in-wind-creek-casino-grave-desecration-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/2024\/10\/14\/muscogee-nation-scores-win-in-wind-creek-casino-grave-desecration-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Muscogee Nation Scores Win in Wind Creek Casino \u2018Grave Desecration\u2019 Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal appeals court in Atlanta has revived a complaint<\/a> brought by an Oklahoma-based tribe that accuses a related tribe in Alabama of desecrating a sacred burial ground when it built its casino.<\/p>\n

\"Muscogee
The Wind Creek Wetumpka Casino in Alabama was built on the site of a sacred Native American burial ground. The 11th Circuit Court has granted the Muscogee Nation its day in court as it seeks justice for its ancestors. (Image: Wind Creek Hospitality)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The land, known as the Hickory Ground, near Wetumpka, Ala., was the Muscogee (Creek) Nation\u2019s<\/a> (MCN) last capital in Alabama before the tribe was removed to Oklahoma in the 1830s as part of a federal policy of forced repatriation.<\/p>\n

\n

In 1980, the land was purchased by the distantly related Poarch Band of Creek Indians, which built a bingo hall that was later developed into the Wind Creek Wetumpka Casino. The Poarch Creeks have been granted sovereignty over the land by the federal government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

MCN claims 57 sets of its ancestors\u2019 human remains and the artifacts buried with them were improperly removed in 2001 during the construction of the bingo hall. These remains are stored without ventilation or temperature control \u201cin plastic bins and boxes\u201d at Auburn University, the tribe claims.<\/p>\n

Casino Expansion <\/strong><\/h2>\n

MCN first sued in 2012 when the Poarch Creeks sought to expand their casino operations on the Hickory Ground. The development went ahead regardless of the lawsuit, and the Wind Creek Casino opened in 2014.<\/p>\n

MCN argues the Poarch Creeks broke a legal promise to protect and preserve the land when they bought it from a private landowner with the help of a historic preservation grant.<\/p>\n

\n

In 2021, the lower court dismissed the case<\/a> on the grounds that the Poarch Creeks were shielded from civil lawsuits by sovereign immunity. But on Friday, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals vacated that decision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The appellate panel ordered the trial judge to do a \u201cclaim by claim\u201d analysis of whether individual officials with the Poarch Band have sovereign immunity from lawsuits.<\/p>\n

Ex Parte Young <\/strong><\/h2>\n

In 1908, in the case known as \u201cEx Parte Young,\u201d the US Supreme Court ruled that suits can proceed in federal courts against state officials when they are acting in violation of the Constitution or federal law.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s despite the state\u2019s sovereign immunity, which would otherwise protect it from civil suits or criminal prosecution. MCN\u2019s lawyers argued that the same standards hold for tribal officials.<\/p>\n

\n

Poarch argued that an unusual exception to Ex Parte Young shielded their officials from accountability under federal laws like the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and the National Historic Preservation Act,\u201d Mary Kathryn Nagle, the celebrated playwright and counsel for MCN said in a statement Friday.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe Eleventh Circuit decisively rejected that argument, underscoring that Poarch\u2019s connection to Hickory Ground is limited,\u201d Nagle added. \u201cThey purchased the land in 1980 with federal preservation funds and promised to protect it. They have no sovereign right to destroy it. This ruling demonstrates that tribal sovereignty is not a license to destroy the sacred places and graves of other sovereign Tribal nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Muscogee Nation Scores Win in Wind Creek Casino \u2018Grave Desecration\u2019 Case<\/a> appeared first on Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal appeals court in Atlanta has revived a complaint brought by an Oklahoma-based tribe that accuses a related tribe in Alabama of desecrating a sacred burial ground when it built its casino. The Wind Creek Wetumpka Casino in Alabama was built on the site of a sacred Native American burial ground. The 11th Circuit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3722"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3724,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3722\/revisions\/3724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}