County to join lawsuit over reservation bounds

Jackson County officials have agreed to join a federal lawsuit involving the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and the Kansas Lottery, along with other northeast Kansas counties and cities in an effort to protect the county’s interests amid a dispute involving the boundaries of the Nation.

At a recent county commission meeting, County Counselor Todd Luckman told the commissioners that the county had been asked to join the lawsuit, which would also include the city of Topeka and Pottawatomie, Shawnee and Wabaunsee counties.

“I think it would be in Jackson County’s best interest to join in this suit,” Commission Chairman Mark Pruett said. “I don’t think that this is something that we can let go.”

On a 3-0 vote, the commissioners approved a motion to join the lawsuit, pending an agreement among all of the governing bodies involved.

The Nation filed a federal lawsuit in July against the Kansas Lottery for allegedly violating the Nation’s sovereignty by selling state-operated lottery tickets and operating lottery machines within the original reservation’s 900-square-mile boundaries established by the Treaty of 1846.

The Kansas Lottery sells lottery tickets and operates lottery machines at about two dozen locations within the Nation’s original boundaries, according to Nation officials.

While the Nation currently has an 11-square-mile reservation in Jackson County, not 900 square miles, tribal leaders argue in the suit that the original 900-square-mile reservation established by the Treaty of 1846 has “never been disestablished or diminished under federal law and therefore continues to exist and constitute ‘Indian Land.’”

The original 900-square-mile boundary encompasses land in Jackson, Pottawatomie, Shawnee and Wabaunsee counties, it was reported.

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