toledoblade.com --

COLUMBUS - The Oklahoma-based Eastern Shawnee tribe yesterday announced plans to sue Ohio in federal court in an attempt to force negotiations over Indian casinos.

The tribe seeks federal recognition of ownership of about 93,000 acres of ancestral lands in the Lima, Wapakoneta, and Bellfontaine areas, as well as hunting, fishing, and gathering rights for about 11,315 square miles making up most of the southern half of Ohio.

The tribe also seeks monetary damages for any revenue the state may have derived from lands from which the Eastern Shawnee says they were forcibly removed in the early to mid-19th Century.

"We have become educated, and we can use the white man's attorneys in the courts the same as the white man did before," said Charles D. Enyart, the tribe's chief.

The tribe, which numbers about 2,300 nationally, has been talking with the city of Lorain, the village of Botkins in Shelby County, and the village of Lordstown in Warren County. All three have been courting Indian casinos for economic development.

Ohio has no federally recognized tribal lands.

"One of the aspects of a settlement would be to accept land in other parts of the state that were suitable for that kind of a presence, not necessarily this particular piece of land, which might be highly disruptive of the current owners," said the tribe's Seattle attorney, Mason Morissett. "No one wants to be throwing one out to move in."

The tribe claims it still owns land formerly known as the Hog Creek Reservation in Allen County and the Wapaghkonetta Reservation in Auglaize County, for which, it says, title was never properly transferred. It also claims the Joseph Moore and Nancy Steward lands in Logan County for which it says title was ceded illegally.

The rest of the claim focuses on a broad swath of 36 counties, stretching from Bellefontaine in the north to the Ohio River in the south, for which it claims hunting, fishing, and gathering rights, it says, were never negotiated away as part of a treaty.

Rob Smith, an associate of Mr. Morissett, said the lawsuit was confirmed as having been received in U.S. District Court in Toledo yesterday, but it won't be formally processed until tomorrow. The court clerk's office is closed because of employee training.

"Since we do not believe that the Eastern Shawnee are entitled to any land in Ohio, whether state-owned or not, we do not see any point to meeting with them," said Attorney General Jim Petro. "If this lawsuit is an effort to further expand gambling in the state, I will do everything I can to stop it."

The Eastern Shawnee runs a sole casino in Oklahoma. Mr. Enyart declined to discuss the tribe's financial worth.

Botkins Mayor James King attended yesterday's press conference, but stopped short of endorsing the lawsuit.

"We're a small village, we've lost 220 jobs," he said. "Three years ago when we started this process, we were looking at trying to generate some income, to move into a different direction."

On Friday, the Ottawa Tribe, also based in Oklahoma, is expected to file the first of two lawsuits related to its claim to about 250 acres of North Bass Island on Lake Erie. The tribe said it wants to establish a commercial fishery.

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com
or 614-221-0496.

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