
The Fort Sill Apache tribe contends in a motion filed late last week that the decision made by the National Indian Gaming Commission in May is contrary to law and violates a 2007 settlement with the tribe.
The tribe also is adding the federal government and the U.S. Interior Department as defendants in the case.
The tribe wants to operate a casino on land at Akela that was put into trust in 2002.
The state also has rejected those efforts. The tribe has asked the New Mexico Supreme Court to reconsider its decision not to force Gov. Susana Martinez to sign a gambling compact with the tribe.
The Fort Sill Apache tribe is the successor to the Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apache people who lived in southern New Mexico until 1886, when they were forcibly removed to Oklahoma by the U.S. Government.
Today, a 30-acre parcel of land at Akela in Luna County is the extent of the Fort Sill Apache’s restored and federally-recognized homeland.