However, the judge's ruling says the development deals had clear waivers of sovereign immunity and that the non-recourse provisions in the contract don't apply to the investors' claim for damages for fraudulent misrepresentation. In the Ingham County case brought by the investors, Kewadin argued that it should owe zero damages because of sovereign immunity and a non-recourse provision in the development contracts.

District Court for the District of Columbia sided with the tribe, but the ruling was reversed last year by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

The tribe then sued the Department of Interior. The Department of Interior ultimately declined the tribe's request for the Huron Township site, saying the Sault failed to prove how the proposal would satisfy a legal requirement that new land put into trust improve or enhance tribal lands, particularly because Wayne County is far from the Sault's existing lands in the U.P. The investor groups claim in their lawsuit that the tribe made false representations that it could easily acquire the lands for the casinos and have the lands put into trust. Under those contracts, the investors were to finance temporary casinos that Kewadin would operate and Kewadin was to repay the financing through a portion of the casinos' operating profits. The two non-tribe investor groups for the Huron Township and Lansing plans sued the Kewadin gaming authority for breaching casino development contracts. Greektown Casino-Hotel in Detroit on March 16, 2022. It is the same tribe that opened Detroit's Greektown Casino as a non-tribal venture before losing it to bankruptcy in 2008. The Sault tribe is the largest tribe within Michigan by membership and currently operates five small Kewadin casinos in the U.P. The plan drew opposition from the three Detroit casinos and several Michigan tribes that run their own casinos. The Huron Township casino would have operated in a vacant 71,000-square-foot megachurch building in the woods off I-275 that was to be redeveloped. Department of the Interior to put the land for the sites into trust, a necessary step for building off-reservation casinos. In both casino plans, the Sault tribe was unsuccessful in getting the U.S. More: 3 new office buildings would be unique to Detroit, have more amenities, developers say More: 7 new Detroit developments opening in 2023 The judgement is likely to be appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals.Ī representative for Kewadin and the Sault tribe declined comment Thursday. Judge Joyce Draganchuk has yet to issue a final judgement, although her Monday ruling entitled the investors to damages for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation by Kewadin.

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