A pause in the Beloit casino application process is over, now that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has reviewed and dismissed a protest from the Ho Chunk Nation. The Ho Chunk had been claiming that bureau was not handling the application process appropriately and the Bad River and St. Croix bands didn't have ancestral rights to the Beloit area.
Joe Hunt, a spokesman for the St. Croix and Bad River bands of the Chippewa, says they've been fighting the claims for months. That included a Ho Chunk ad campaign that tried to argue their ancestral rights to the Beloit area. Hunt says the Bureau essentially said the Chippewa application is in order and there is no cause for concern.
Hunt says the effort to stop the Beloit casino project was due to concerns over future competition for existing casino operations owned by the Ho Chunk.
WCLO's Steve Benton contributed to this report.