(Deming) – Nearly a year after the New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously ruled to force Governor Susana Martinez to recognize the Fort Sill Apache tribe as a New Mexico tribe, the tribe again has returned to the state Supreme Court to ask that the governor be compelled to follow New Mexico state law. The Fort Sill tribe filed a lawsuit requesting Governor Martinez and her administration comply with the State Compact Negotiation Act and sign two Class III gaming compacts submitted to her in 2013.
The window of eligibility for the tribe to sign onto the existing compacts expires in June of this year.
A new compact recently submitted by the governor to the state legislature includes language that specifically excludes the Fort Sill Apaches.
If the proposed compact is approved by the legislature, the Fort Sill Apaches could be denied the ability to offer Class III gaming on its sole and federally recognized reservation in Luna County.
The Fort Sill Apache tribe is the successor to the Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apache tribes, with homelands in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. The tribe purchased property at Akela Flats in Luna County in 1998.
That property was made tribal trust land in 2002 and designated a reservation in November 2011.
The window of eligibility for the tribe to sign onto the existing compacts expires in June of this year.
A new compact recently submitted by the governor to the state legislature includes language that specifically excludes the Fort Sill Apaches.
If the proposed compact is approved by the legislature, the Fort Sill Apaches could be denied the ability to offer Class III gaming on its sole and federally recognized reservation in Luna County.
The Fort Sill Apache tribe is the successor to the Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apache tribes, with homelands in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. The tribe purchased property at Akela Flats in Luna County in 1998.
That property was made tribal trust land in 2002 and designated a reservation in November 2011.
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