Topeka ? Kansas scored a victory Wednesday in an ongoing legal battle with an Oklahoma Indian tribe trying to put a casino in Wyandotte County.

The U.S. Interior Department clarified a ruling it made in March that appeared to grant the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma the right to put a casino on land it owns in Kansas City, Kan. The department said its March ruling should not be interpreted as granting the tribe that right.

Gov. Bill Graves’ office released a copy of the clarification Wednesday. Assistant Interior Secretary Neal McCaleb signed the document.

Graves and the four recognized tribes with reservations in northeast Kansas sued the Interior Department over the March ruling. Graves’ office said it was pleased with the clarification.

Last month, the tribe moved 200 slot machines into the former Masonic Lodge building that it owns, located across the street from Kansas City, Kan., City Hall. The tribe removed the machines two weeks later. Since buying the old lodge building in 1996, the tribe has been seeking authority to use it as a casino.

In its clarification, the Interior Department wrote: “This clarification is necessary to underscore that the notice should not be interpreted as a determination by the Secretary of the Interior that the Wyandotte Tribe is entitled to conduct gaming activities on the Shriner’s Property …”

Calls by The Associated Press to Wyandotte Nation Chief Leaford Bearskin and a lawyer representing the tribe went unanswered Wednesday.

The clarification is the latest development in the 6-year-old legal battle between Kansas and the Wyandottes.

The tribe’s downtown casino has been an unsuccessful bargaining chip in a bid to force the Kansas Legislature to let it install slots at The Woodlands racetrack or some other location in Wyandotte County.

The clarification turns on an obscure issue that appeared to have been resolved.

In 1984, the federal government paid the tribe $100,000 in long-delayed compensation for land in Ohio that the tribe ceded to the United States in the 1800s.

Under federal law, if that money was used to buy other land and if no other tribal funds were required for that purchase then the secretary of the interior would be obliged to take the land into trust for the tribe. Since 1988, such trust status has qualified Indian lands for casinos.