Kansas Kickapoo Nation officials have been told they violated a federal standard this summer when they improperly fired two gaming commissioners who regulate the tribe's Golden Eagle Casino near Horton, Kan.

In a letter this week to Tribal Chairman Steve Cadue, John Peterson, acting director of enforcement for the National Indian Gaming Commission, threatened formal enforcement action against the tribe it if does not "correct these violations." The federal agency this summer subpoenaed tribal records in a formal investigation of the incident.

Fred Thomas, one of the fired commissioners, said today he felt vindicated by the federal agency's action this week. "We were illegally removed," he said. "Our rights were violated."

Besides complaining to the federal agency, Thomas and Bear sued Cadue and others in Kickapoo Nation District Court.

The lawsuit alleged tribal authorities also fired gaming commission executive director Roy Murphy in a dispute over tribal council appropriations to fund the gaming commission. The case is pending.

The casino has remained open during the turmoil.

Cadue said Friday the fired commissioners had threatened to halt regulatory oversight of the casino in the monetary dispute.

"They had the money" to properly run the commission, Cadue said Friday. "Had we not acted the casino would have been shut down by state and federal authorities, and that would have been an economic catastrophe for the Kickapoo tribe."

Peterson found that Cadue and commissioner Nancy Bear, a former tribal chairwoman, were improperly removed by three of the tribal council's seven members. The tribe's gaming ordinance, which outlines to federal authorities how it will operate its reservation casino business, requires a three-fourths vote of the council to remove a gaming commissioner.

"I think the NIGC is a little behind the curve in terms of the facts," tribal lawyer Elizabeth Homer said today. She said that a subsequent vote by the tribal council garnered the four votes of a council quorum that she said had been necessary to remove the two commissioners, and that Peterson would be advised of that action.

Peterson also noted that the tribe similarly breached its own procedures by appointing a temporary commissioner to the three-member tribal oversight panel.

Peterson said his letter was intended to "give the Tribe an opportunity to come into compliance without the need for a formal enforcement action."