The Bureau of Indian Affairs currently does not recognize the leader of the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town, or AQTT. Its website says the chief is subject to a tribal leadership dispute between Wilson Yargee and Sam Marshall.
Reporting from Oklahoma Voice shows the intra-tribal dispute has been going on for years. But after Yargee's leadership announced a partnership with Kalshi last month and the launch of PokkeTrades, a prediction market app, the conflict is coming into national focus.
Michael Stopp, who previously told KOSU he worked on economic development for the tribe, said the agreement would allow them to continue diversifying their revenue streams.
However, this partnership came amid backlash from more than 140 tribal nations and organizations that filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing Kalshi and other similar platforms cause harm to the economic interests of tribes and their sovereignty.
Some of the backlash now is evident from inside the nation.
Brian Palmer, the tribal administrator for the Marshall faction, said making a deal with Kalshi goes against the decades-old law, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, or IGRA.
"For a tribe to go against that and try to exercise this form of gaming that isn't regulated under IGRA, yeah, you might as well be a scout for Custer," Palmer said in an interview with KOSU in October.
Citizens of tribal town hold dual citizenship in the Muscogee Nation, as it once belonged to the Muscogee Confederacy.
Marshall and his administration filed a petition in the Muscogee Nation Okmulgee District Court on Oct. 30.
Marshall said his administration never approved the Kalshi agreement and claimed it damaged his reputation and the tribal town's. The suit pointed to an example that occurred at the National Congress of American Indians 83rd Annual Convention.
"During the convention, while the Town was publicly associated with PokkeTrades, the Town was excluded from participation in NCAI proceedings and its vote was rescinded, Chief Marshall was excluded from conversations, and the Town was described as harming tribal sovereignty," according to court documents obtained by Mvskoke Media.
The lawsuit alleged Yargee's administration committed fraud, negligence and slander, among other things. Kalshi is also swept up in the lawsuit for participating in the deal, as well as the Yargee faction's commercial economic development arm.
The BIA did not answer KOSU's question about whether it is legal for a chief to enter into a business agreement amid an intra-tribal dispute. In a statement, a spokesperson for the federal agency wrote, "The Department of the Interior honors tribal sovereignty and supports tribal self-determination. The principles of tribal sovereignty limit BIA's legal authority to intervene in internal tribal disputes."