Leaders of the Catawbas celebrated the initiation of a casino resort project in Kings Mountain after years of legal dispute with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), a rival tribe.
The EBCI, who own two casinos in North Carolina, have long sought to keep the South Carolina-based Catawbas from building a casino in the Tarheel State.
The EBCI that the Catawbas are infringing on their land. The territorial quarrel between the two tribes extends centuries.
In March the US Department of the Interior permitted the Catawbas to build a $273m, 17-acre casino about 30 miles west of Charlotte.
The casino site is located right off the busy I-85.
The Catawbas still must seek class III gaming compact approval from North Carolina governor Roy Cooper.
