An Oklahoma-based Indian tribe has filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming it’s entitled to the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant near DeSoto.

A lawyer representing the Shawnee tribe on Monday declined to rule out the possibility of putting a casino on part of the 9,065-acre site.

“My client is not going to promise that it’s not going to put in a gaming facility of some type on the property. It is an option, but it’s one of many options,” said Phillip E. Thompson, the tribe’s lawyer.

Thompson is expected to meet today with several federal, state and county officials in Olathe.

“We’re meeting to let folks know there’s a lawsuit and, after the issues have been laid out, see if there’s something that can be worked out,” said Blaine Hastings, project manager with the U.S. General Services Administration.

The meeting will not be open to the public.

“This will be a legal-negotiation, staff-level kind of discussion,” Hastings said. “So it won’t be open.”

In the lawsuit, Thompson argues the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant land is covered by a series of treaties signed in 1825, 1831 and 1854 between the federal government and the Cherokee tribe, which was later moved to Oklahoma.

At the time, the Shawnee tribe was considered part of the Cherokee tribe. But in December 2000, Congress granted the Shawnee tribe a charter separate from the Cherokee tribe.

Under the charter, Thompson said, the Shawnees have a legitimate claim to the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant site.

“Basically, the law says if the government isn’t going to use the land, then it should go back to the tribe, which, in this case, would be the Shawnees,” Thompson said.

Not just for gaming

The law, he said, prohibits the General Services Administration from giving the property to the state or to Johnson County if the tribe wants it.

“The tribe has decided to exercise its rights and authority,” Thompson said.

Thompson filed the lawsuit June 13 in federal court in Washington, D.C.

He said the Shawnee tribe was not opposed to past proposals for converting part of the property to park or recreational use.

“There’s been very serious discussion about part of it being used for a bison reintroduction project,” Thompson said.

The tribe, he said, also is interested in commercial development.

“There are several parcels (of land) out there that could be used for gaming-type activities,” Thompson said. “But this isn’t about gaming or about putting in a casino, it’s about a tribe exerting its rights.”

A decision on whether to put a casino on the land is a long way off, Thompson said.

“That’s something that could be done, and it’s a decision the tribe has the right to make, but it’s not something that’s being discussed,” he said.

State involvement

Greg Pitcher, head of the Shawnee Tribal Development Corporation, said the tribe’s first priority was to preserve the former homesteads on the property as well as “the areas that are environmentally pristine.”

Pitcher said there has “been no talk about putting a casino out there, but we have other options where we think that could happen.”

Kristin Heuertz, spokeswoman for Gov. Bill Graves’ office, said the administration would be represented at the meeting.

“We’ll be there to gather information. We want to hear what the tribe and the GSA have to say, but we’ll not take an active part in the meeting,” Heuertz said. “We’re just going to listen.”

When asked if the state would try to block efforts to put a casino at the site, Heuertz replied, “It’s too early to say, we don’t have enough information.”

Last month, Kessinger/Hunter & Co., a Kansas City real estate development firm, offered to take over the site and clean up the polluted areas in exchange for being able to develop the property. Tribal spokesmen said it would be the responsibility of the federal government to clean up the site.

How the Shawnee Tribe lawsuit affects the Kessinger/Hunter proposal is unclear.

“We don’t have much to say about this, we’re observers,” said Charles Hunter, a principal in Kessinger/Hunter.