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Cheyenne and Arapaho recently signed documents placing 6.812 acres of land off Hwy. I-40 south of Geary, Okla. into trust on Jan. 25, 2022. The land, known commonly as the Rodeo Joe’s tract, is the second parcel of land to be placed into trust for the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes under the Wassana/Miles administration.
GEARY – The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes’ application to take land into trust south of Geary has been approved, the tribes announced last week.
The land comprises just over 6.8 acres off I-40 and was the former location of Rodeo Joe’s. The tribes purchased the land in fee on March 21, 2006, and have been attempting to place the land into trust ever since, they said in a press release.
“In the past, our tribe has always had difficulty getting any of our fee land placed into trust status,” said Cheyenne and Arapaho Gov. Reggie Wassana in the release. “Today is a day to celebrate for all of those who worked on past applications in past administrations, including our former Business Committee administrators.”
Wassana said the approval “returns some of our land to us with full tribal authority.”
The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes were relocated to Oklahoma in the late 19th century; they were two distinct tribes with a similar territorial footprint that later organized under one tribal government. Though their west-central Oklahoma lands were originally a reservation, the release says the tribes lost more than 90% of their lands in 1891 under a Congressional agreement that paved the way for non-Indian settlement of the area.
The release says the tribe can now “move forward with making decisions on the best use of the land, to include exploring economic development opportunities.”
It does not specify how the tribe might seek to develop the land. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes operate Lucky Star Casino locations throughout their territory, including in Watonga, and last year purchased a hotel in El Reno near the tribes’ Concho headquarters.
That’s part of the tribe’s strategy to “diversify” its investments “beyond gaming,” it said at the time.
“We look forward to getting more of our properties placed into trust,” Wassana said, “and continuing to build our relationship with James Schock, Regional Director of the BIA Southern Plans Regional Office, his staff and the Concho Agency.”
The tribes also took the Geary Community Center property into trust in 2020.
The successful application for Rodeo Joe’s was submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in March 2021 and approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Deb Haaland, the current Secretary of the Interior, is the first Native American to hold that office.