DEMING — The leader of the Oklahoma-based Fort Sill Apache Tribe says he's pleased with a decision by the National Indian Gaming Commission to withdraw its legal opinion about the tribe's plan for a casino in New Mexico.

The commission's general counsel this week withdrew the opinion, which concluded the tribe could not legally open a casino on trust land east of Deming.

While the move does not signal the commission's approval of the tribe's effort, tribal Chairman Jeff Houser said he interpreted it as the agency's "concurrence with our opinion that we may legally use the site for a casino."

The commission, on its Web site, said: "As a result of a new argument provided by the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, the Office of General Counsel is in the process of reviewing and reconsidering the May 19, 2008, opinion."

It is unclear when the NIGC might issue a new opinion. A commission spokesman did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Notice of the withdrawal was filed following a federal court hearing on the tribe's ongoing effort to obtain an order requiring the federal government to comply with a 2007 settlement agreement of a lawsuit in Oklahoma. A decision on that issue is pending.

The tribe contends the federal government must "timely process" the reservation application under the settlement of a land dispute in Oklahoma with the Comanche Nation resolving the Comanches' request that the government shut down and stop the expansion of a Fort Sill Apache casino in Lawton, Okla.

The tribe believes the settlement will lead to establishment of a reservation at Akela Flats — a 30-acre site east of Deming that was taken into trust by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2001 — and pave the way for the opening of gaming operations there.

Members of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe are descendants of the Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apaches, who lived in parts of New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico but were removed in the 1880s and sent first to Florida and later to Oklahoma.

The legal opinion had said that 26 enrolled members of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe live in New Mexico — about 4 percent of tribal membership.




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