Page 9 - February 2003 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Tribal Sovereignty Works
Regular readers of the Southern California Gaming Guide have followed “Native American
Host” Tribal histories on our pages, and have read about Tribal community outreach on the “Tribes in the News” page. For the next few months this feature will provide readers with more
Cinformation about Tribal gaming in California.
alifornia’s American Indians lived for generations as invisible people, many on small predominantly rural federal trust lands, politically disenfranchised and isolated by poverty. These conditions remained unchanged well into the early 1990s, with a number of the
50,000 members of 107 federally recognized California tribal governments largely dependent on subsidies from a failed system of federal paternalism.
But most signi cantly, gaming has provided Native Americans in California and throughout the U.S. with the resources to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed rights as sovereign nations. It has given Tribal nations the means to achieve self-reliance and self-governance. Gaming has enabled Tribes to become an economic force and contribute to the prosperity of those on Indian lands and surrounding communities. Tribal governments are becoming partners in U.S. commerce and industry. Gaming has given Native Americans a voice in national and
state politics. It has restored to American Indians a sense of pride and self-respect. It is helping Indians recapture their past, preserve their culture and ensure their future.
“This is about the future preservation, well-being and socialization of our people,”
The March 2000 passage of Proposition 1A, a constitutional amendment that allowed slot machines and house-banked card games on Indian lands, changed the future of California’s American Indians. Approved by 65% of California’s voters, the California Indian Self-Reliance Amendment, coupled with tribal and state compacts negotiated by Governor Gray Davis and 61 tribes, provided the legislative framework that has enabled California to develop the nation’s largest, most successful and highly regulated tribal government gaming industry.
Tribal government gaming in California provides jobs, education and healthcare to thousands of American Indians. It generates funds for housing, recreational pro- grams, clinics and cultural centers. Tribal government employment for 2002 reached 35,200, a 12.1% increase during a year that California lost 15,800 jobs state-wide. About 90% of the jobs are held by non-Indians. Tribes
have fueled the economy by spending millions in con- struction and with local vendors for goods and services.
Tribes have pledged more than $1 billion in the next twenty years to improve roads and help fund county and municipal services. Tribal gaming has also generated over $100 million in state taxes. In the last two years Tribal governments have contributed millions of dollars to community organizations and charities.
“Butmostsignificantly,gaming has provided Native Americans in California and throughout the U.S. with the resources to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed rights as sovereign nations. It has given Tribal nations the means to achieve self-reliance and self-governance.”
says Anthony Pico, chairman of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians of Alpine. “What I really believe is the great success story of Indian gaming is the extent to which it has given tribes the right and opportunity and the obligation to govern ourselves. We de ne that as the obligation to exercise our sovereignty.”
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
CaliforniaTribesareusinggamingrevenuestodiversify theireconomies.GamingisprovidingTribeswithinvest- ment capital to develop hotels, banks, shopping malls, service stations, bottling plants, and other businesses.
Excerpted and edited from “Tribal Sovereignty Works,” February 2003, California Nations Indian Gaming Association
February 2003 Page 9
Tribes in the News