ALBANY (AP) -- A judge has agreed to hear a challenge to the federal government's decision to take 18 acres of upstate New York land into trust for the Oneida Indian Nation.
The hearing will be February 25 in Albany before U.S. District Court Justice Lawrence Kahn.
State and local officials have criticized the transfer of the former U.S. Air Force land, saying they were never notified in advance of the decision.
Federal officials say there was no need to notify anyone because the law requires putting excess military land on Indian reservations into trust for the tribe.
Kahn is overseeing seven separate lawsuits filed over the U.S. Department of Interior's decision to put 13,000 acres into trust for the Oneidas, which would make it exempt from state and local laws.
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