Page 14 - November 2003 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
California Tribal Gaming — Separating
Fact from Fiction by Rob Schmidt
Arnold Schwarzenegger won California’s recall race by blaming the state’s woes on “special interests.” He named Indian gaming tribes as a prime offender.
Did the ex-Terminator have a point? Let’s look at the history of tribal gaming and separate fact from ction.
10,000 Years and Counting
When Europeans arrived in the Americas, they found the land inhabited by well-established groups of indigenous people. In the British colonies, they recognized tribal groups as sovereignties much like their own and signed treaties with them accordingly. The Founding Fathers con rmed this parity by equating foreign nations, the several states, and Indian tribes in the U.S. Constitution.
Unfortunately, land-hungry Americans ignored the legal treaties and began pushing Indians westward. But three early Supreme Court cases, known as the Marshall Trilogy, established tribes as “domestic dependent nations.” They would be quasi-independent entities: wards of the federal government but independent of state control.
In California, Spanish rulers were even less accommodating. They herded the natives onto ranches and into missions, where overseers, like Father Junipero Serra, converted them into God-fearing serfs. After the United States took California in the Mexican-American War, James Marshall discovered gold and people poured into the territory.
In 1852 tribal leaders met with the new state’s of cials in Temecula. They signed a treaty acknowledging U.S. authority in exchange for keeping half of California. Under pressure from the state, Congress refused to ratify this agreement, and settlers continued to encroach on Indian land.
After rounding up the remaining Indians (Ishi was reputedly the last “wild” one), the interlopers suppressed indigenous cultures and religions. For decades they sent Indian children to Catholic schools to “civilize” them, while neglecting their destitute homelands. As late as the 1960s, the government tried to “terminate” some tribes—to literally write them out of existence.
Gaming to the Rescue
Not until the ’70s, with Alcatraz and Wounded Knee II, did Indians begin to assert their long-ignored rights. To help their long-suffering communities, they launched various rebuilding programs. One of the few that worked was the lowly bingo game.
When tribes began offering high-stakes bingo, the states tried to stop them. In California v. Cabazon (1987), the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that if games such as bingo were legal, states could not regulate them on reservations. The Court af rmed the Marshall decisions 150 years before, that tribes were sovereigns not subject to state civil authority.
To codify this ruling, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) in 1988. IGRA recognized Indian tribes’ sovereign right to conduct gaming on Indian lands without state or local intervention. IGRA provided a statutory basis for the regulation of Indian gaming,
specifying mechanisms and procedures, and required tribes to use gaming revenue to promote their economic development and welfare.
Indian Gaming: Fiction and Fact
Many myths and misconceptions surround American Indians and Indian gaming.
Fiction: Congress recently made tribes “sovereign” as a kind of apology. Fact: The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld tribal sovereignty since the 1820s.
Fiction: Congress recently “gave” gaming to tribes as a reparations program. Fact: Tribes began large-scale gaming, mainly bingo, a decade before IGRA.
Fiction: Tribes are getting rich from gaming.
Fact: Only 40% of the nation’s tribes and half of California’s tribes are pursuing gaming. Many gaming operations are too small or remote to make much money.
Fiction: Tribes are seeking federal recognition to bene t from gaming. Fact: Most tribes seeking recognition have been doing so for decades, long before gaming was a consideration.
Fiction: Tribes are using gaming to enrich their members.
Fact: By law tribes must use gaming revenues to fund tribal government programs and provide for their members’ welfare.
Fiction: California’s richer tribes are making money at the expense of its poorer tribes.
Fact: California’s gaming tribes have established a statewide fund to share revenues with non-gaming tribes. No other state does this.
Fiction: Tribal casinos are largely unregulated.
Fact: Tribal casinos are regulated on more levels (tribal, state, and federal), spend more on regulation, and employ more regulators than commercial casinos.
Fiction: Indians don’t pay taxes.
Fact: All Indians pay federal taxes, and all Indians pay state and local taxes except the few who live and work on reservations.
Fiction: Tribal casinos don’t pay taxes but should, like card clubs and other businesses.
Fact: Tribal casinos are government-run enterprises, not commercial businesses.
Fiction: Tribes don’t pay taxes but should.
Fact: The U.S. has historically recognized tribes as self-governing sovereign nations. Nations don’t pay taxes, their citizens do.
Fiction: Gaming is an unconstitutional privilege granted to tribes based on race. Fact: The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that tribes, like other sovereign nations, are political entities, not racial entities.
Fiction: Tribal casinos hurt the surrounding communities.
Fact: Tribal casinos help the surrounding communities by creating jobs, hiring businesses, and giving to charitable organizations.
Fiction: Gaming tribes are a “front” for outside nancial interests.
Fact: Like other groups without suf cient capital, tribes need investors to build high-quality casinos.
Fiction: Gaming tribes have “bought” California’s government for $120 million in campaign contributions.
Fact: Tribes spent most of the $120 million to pass Propositions 5 and 1A, not to elect politicians.
...Continued on page 17.
Page 14 NOVEMBER 2003
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