The inequities are as stark as any tale of cattle barons in the past. Like all classic Westerns, what emerges most is a story about survival and the search for some measure of rough justice. The record shows what appear to be major flaws in the review process, but after inviting written questions, Interior abruptly cut off any answers last week, citing the pending litigation. This account draws on court filings, interviews and internal government documents released to POLITICO under the Freedom of Information Act. The suit seeks to build on the past decade of cases in which top federal judges have seemed to supersede Congress in altering old concepts of Indian law. Blindsided, the Comanche hope to turn the tables by using a landmark 2012 Supreme Court decision to challenge the department’s actions under the Administrative Procedure Act. What triggered this fight is a new Red River Chickasaw casino, which Interior approved last year with no notice to the Comanche, whose ancestral lands are just miles away. And come September 26, the Comanche will make oral arguments in a precedent-setting lawsuit against the Interior Department.

There, amid the inscribed names of Pony Express riders, this same appellate court shook up all of Oklahoma just last year on a separate Indian law case.

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