Dec 1, 2003 By Christine Haines 7 min read

BROWNSVILLE – A Canadian tribal nation spent more than a quarter-million dollars before deciding to pull out of the plans for an Indian casino in Brownsville. Now, the Six Nations of the Grand River is looking to see what, if any, contractual obligations it may still have toward the project being brokered by Brownsville property owner Ernest Liggett.

Cohen and Grigsby, a Pittsburgh law firm hired by the Six Nations Council to investigate the deal negotiated with Liggett by previous elected tribal officials, noted that Six Nations spent more than $260,000 Canadian, which is just under $200,000 in U.S. currency, on the Brownsville casino project. The funds included more than $211,000 to Six Nations’ former law firm, Jackson and Kelly, nearly $30,000 to Balaban and Balaban for lobbying services and an additional $19,400 for travel and related expenses.

Liggett has attempted to broker deals with several Native American nations over the past several years, including the Wyandotte and Delaware in Oklahoma and the Six Nations of the Grand River, located in Ontario, Canada.

The Delaware and Wyandotte tribes have filed letters seeking tribal recognition with the governor’s office, though the state has taken no action on the requests. The Wyandotte letter was filed several years ago, according to Chief Leaford Bearskin.

“That was sent a long time ago, advising the governor that we had a presence in Pennsylvania at one time,” Bearskin said, adding that the Wyandotte have never asked the governor for a gaming compact. “We’re not seeking anything in that manner.”

Chief Joe Brooks of the Delaware Nation could not be reached for comment. A public relations firm hired by the Delaware Nation announced earlier this year that it intends to seek land for gaming purposes in eastern Pennsylvania that includes the Crayola factory.

The Six Nations of the Grand River Council passed a resolution in 1998 authorizing Phil Monture, then the council’s lands research director, to pursue a project that included the possibility of a casino in Brownsville.

In November 2001, a new council was elected to office. Monture briefed the new council in January 2002, at which time the project was put on hold. In April 2002, the council passed a resolution ordering Monture to immediately discontinue all activities on the project on behalf of the council. In July 2002, Monture was replaced as the director of the land claims office. He is now the president of Ohwista Ko:Wah, a Native American-owned corporation purchasing Liggett’s Brownsville holdings.

According to a report prepared for Six Nations by Cohen and Grigsby that was released by Chief Roberta Jameson’s office, the Delaware tribe withdrew from negotiations in September 1999, at which time the Wyandotte Nation was offered the opportunity to become a tribal partner.

“On Sept. 15, 2000, the Wyandotte and Six Nations entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) whereby they would jointly develop the project. The Wyandotte withdrew from the project in December 2001,” the report states.

“The MOU contemplated that the Wyandotte would obtain an option to purchase certain land located in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, of which approximately 73 acres were owned by Ernest and Marilyn Liggett. After obtaining the option to purchase the land, an application was to be filed with the U.S. Department of Interior requesting that the land be taken into trust for the benefit of the Wyandotte,” the Cohen and Grigsby report states.

“Since the acceptance of the land into trust would occur (if at all) after 1988, gaming would not be permitted on the land unless the secretary of Interior, with the concurrence of the governor of Pennsylvania, determined that gaming on such land would be in the best interest of the Indian tribe and would not be detrimental to the surrounding community,” the report continues.

According to the report, the governor’s office, including both Gov. Tom Ridge and Gov. Mark Schweiker, at that time did not support gaming in Pennsylvania.

The Wyandotte withdrawal from the agreement was confirmed by Bearskin.

“We abandoned that idea a long time ago,” Bearskin said.

He said the tribe is also not involved with Ohwista Ko:Wah.

According to Liggett, the role that Six Nations was to play in the casino development would have been similar to the role now being filled by Ohwista Ko:Wah, serving as a financing vehicle and facilitating the transfer of properties to tribal ownership, as required by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Indian Gaming Regulatory Commission (IGRC) for Indian gaming. Ohwista Ko:Wah, Liggett said, is also providing an Indian-to-Indian relationship with the tribal partners.

“Six Nations was essentially expected to act as a financial partner in the same capacity that any other party with the requisite financial resources could fill,” the Cohen and Grigsby report states. “In other words, Six Nations does not appear to have been filling a role in the project because of its Indian heritage. However, the project was entirely dependent on the involvement of a U.S.-recognized Indian tribe, and Six Nations was probably intended to use its connections and relationships with U.S.-recognized Indian tribes to secure such involvement.”

The report goes on to say that for its involvement, Six Nations was to receive 30 percent of the gaming revenue, the largest share an entity that is not a U.S. recognized tribe may receive under IGRA. According to the report, the Wyandotte and Six Nations had an agreement regarding the non-gaming revenues that would have equally divided the proceeds.

According to the Cohen and Grigsby report, the former Six Nations Council had approved a financial agreement with Liggett identified in the River City Project Matrix, dated Dec. 26, 2001.

“The agreement calls for a one-time master developer payment of $30 million, $6 million to be paid to the Liggetts when the properties are approved for federal trust status, and a 2.5 percent revenue share to the Liggetts for 30 years,” the report states.

According to the report, the Six Nations Council also had a “side agreement” with the Liggetts: “The committee summary of the side agreement indicated that the former council agreed that if the project was ever developed, Six Nations would pay all the Liggetts’ expenses for a 20-year period.”

One of the questions the current Six Nations Council asked Cohen and Grigsby to determine was the current status of contractual relationships entered into by the previous council. The law firm, though, reported that its review was “severely limited” because few of the contracts were submitted for review.

A footnote on the report clarifies why the contracts could not be reviewed: “The current Council was advised that many of these contracts/documents were returned to the Liggetts by Six Nation’s former director of lands research without its approval or permission and without appropriate copies of such contracts/documents being retained.”

“Six Nations withdrew from this project, and I don’t know if there is any reason to discuss Six Nations at this point,” Liggett said when asked about the return of the contracts.

Monture, who served as the Six Nations director of lands research for about 27 years before his dismissal from that position in July 2002, said the Six Nations Council should still have copies of the contracts.

Monture said there have been a number of changes in the Six Nations government that could have resulted in people not knowing where to find the contract copies.