May 9--LAWTON -- For the past 15 years, the Fort Sill Apache Tribe has been a fly in the Comanche Nation's ointment.

At the center of the acrimonious relationship is a half-acre in west Lawton, where the Fort Sill Apaches built a casino on land originally belonging to the Comanches.

The smaller tribe's recent casino renovation has upped the ante in this casino war.

"I've been in the (Indian gaming) business 20 years, and I've never seen anything like this sort of hostility," said Darrell Nott, general manager of the Fort Sill Apache casino.

He accused the Comanches of using "dirty" tactics in hopes of altering the Fort Sill Apaches' plan to build a connecting hotel and restaurant on an adjacent 10 acres. The Fort Sill Apaches are leasing that land through 2044 from the state of Oklahoma.

An attorney for the Comanche Nation said it is the Fort Sill Apaches who have the history of dirty tricks.

"What has been portrayed as a small, poor neglected tribe quite successfully is, in fact, a tribe that has trust land that it should have never had in Oklahoma," said the attorney, William Norman.

Dispute has numerous tentacles As with most legal issues involving Indian land, this one is complex. Its origins predate the time of Oklahoma's statehood.

The Fort Sill Apaches were held at Fort Sill as prisoners of war from 1894 to 1914.

Upon their release, 84 of the surviving 271 tribe members remained in Oklahoma. To provide them a home, the federal government acquired land allotments from members of other tribes, including the Comanches.

The result is that members of different tribes became adjoining landowners.

The half-acre in Lawton, where the Fort Sill Apache casino sits, originally was under Comanche jurisdiction. Ultimately the Fort Sill Apaches bought it and had it placed into federal trust without Comanche consent in the mid-1990s, Norman said.

The Comanche Nation sued in 2005. A settlement approved last year essentially forgave the Fort Sill Apaches and the Bureau of Indian Affairs for any past wrongs. But it also prohibits the smaller tribe from obtaining any more trust land in Oklahoma without the Comanches' consent.

Trust land status is required for a tribe to build a casino.

To get around that restriction, Jeff Houser, the chairman of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, negotiated a lease for 10 acres east and south of the casino. That land, leased from survivors of a Comanche allottee, is being used for overflow parking and for the casino's heating and air conditioning units, Houser said. It also was used to store construction equipment during a recent renovation of the casino.

However, some members of the allottee's family now object to the lease and refer to Houser's tribe as "trespassers."

Why are they upset? They are upset in part because of the price: $1,000 a year.

They complained to the area Bureau of Indian Affairs office, which issued a cease and desist order against Houser's tribe.

Norman said the Bureau of Indian Affairs is required to obtain the best lease price for Indian land owners.

But the price Houser negotiated breaches that requirement, he said.

Houser claims elected Comanche leaders are behind the family's complaints. He also maintains the bureau sided with the Comanches without considering his tribe's response.

Surveyors representing either the family or the Comanche Nation planted stakes this week around the casino and used spray paint to illustrate where they say Houser's tribe is trespassing.

Millions could be at stake If the initial Bureau of Indian Affairs ruling is upheld, Houser's tribe would lose 130 parking spots, most of which were filled on a recent Tuesday.

Nott, the casino manager, said his 330 machines average $300 each in daily revenue after paying winners.

That figures to nearly $100,000 a day or $36 million a year, before paying salaries and other operating expenses.

Houser plans to expand the casino to more than 800 games by building a second floor. With that number, Nott predicts the casino will net $40 million a year after expenses.

A half-mile west, along Interstate 44, the Comanches operate a 700-machine casino.

The Lawton area probably can support both tribes' casinos, mainly because of its transient military population, said Keith Kuhlman, director of real estate management for the state Commissioners of the Land Office, which is leasing the 10 adjoining acres to the Fort Sill Apaches for the future hotel and restaurant.

Norman, the Comanches' attorney, said the idea that both casinos can co-exist ignores the larger issue, which he said is a pattern of "encroachments" by the Fort Sill Apaches.

"This is not an issue of competition between two businesses," Norman said. "It's more about the fact that the Comanches feel very passionately that they don't want another tribe taking away their sovereignty or their authority over their own land."

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