£250m at stake in tribe's gamble

FOUR hundred years after welcoming the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock, the native American Seconke Wampanoag tribe is proving less hospitable to the British.

Chief Wilfred 'Eagle Heart' Greene is threatening to derail the planned £230m sale of gaming company Wembley's money-spinning Rhode Island complex to South African tycoon Sol Kerzner.

Greene has written to Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri giving notice that he will launch a legal challenge to ownership of the land occupied by Wembley's Lincoln Park dog track and casino because a 1646 land treaty was 'fraudulent' and not signed by the tribal chief of the day.

Wembley said it was aware of the Wampanoag claim, but could not speculate on what effect it might have on the track and the agreement of sale to BLB, an investment group that includes Kerzner and American investment firm Starwood Capital. While Carcieri and legal experts doubt that the Wampanoags will prevail, a lawsuit could take years to make its way through American courts and hinder the sale of Lincoln Park, whose 2,543 slot machines take $5.8 million (£3.1 million) a week before taxes.

If the original deed was invalid, then the racetrack is on land that belongs to the Wampanoags.

While the tribe went down in history as the one that welcomed the Pilgrims arriving in 1620, they have not always been so welcoming - they led one of the bloodiest wars against white settlers 45 years later.

Lincoln Park and two former executives, Daniel Bucci and Nigel Potter, are due back in court in Rhode Island on April 26 for a retrial on charges that they conspired to bribe the former Speaker of the State House to win approval for installing more slot machines at Lincoln Park.

An earlier jury trial acquitted them of five charges and deadlocked on 20 others.