Indian Gaming Act: Haste makes waste

Arnie's looking for big bucks from California tribes.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was put together so hastily in 1987 that it is not only inequitable to the different Indian nations, it also has no teeth.
No one knew how the act would play out simply because it covered entirely new ground, but the one thing it did accomplish was to give state governments too much leverage over the Indian nations.
It's been less than 20 years since Indian casinos began to spring up on Indian reservations across America. The very existence of these elaborate facilities on lands once considered the poorest in the country is a phenomenon in and of itself.
In California, tribal people who once lived in mud huts with dirt floors are now living in the lap of luxury. They drive new cars, live in 4,000-square-foot homes and can afford to send their children to the finest colleges and universities in America. This apparent miracle is repeating itself throughout this nation.
But, just as honey draws flies, money draws thieves, speculators, fortune hunters and it brings out the greed in people. State governments operating under huge financial deficits see the Indian casinos as a source of untapped revenues. IGRA had no provisions to protect the fledgling casino owners from the greed of state governments.
Some of the tribes of California stuck their collective necks out just a wee bit too far when they decided to use some of their casino profits in the war of politics. A recent survey revealed that the strong majority of Californians believe that Indian tribes should pay more of their gambling revenues to the state.
At the helm
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is negotiating with the tribes to get higher payments for the state in exchange for the right to obtain more slot machines.
A Los Angeles Times survey reported that registered voters supported Schwarzenegger's efforts 63 percent to 29 percent. They oppose by 59 percent to 33 percent the governor's suggestion that non-Indian card rooms and racetracks be allowed slot machines. Slot machines are only legal in Indian casinos in California. Each tribe is allowed 2,000 slot machines under the terms of the current compacts with the state. In South Dakota the tribes are only allowed 250 slot machines although some of the South Dakota tribes have 10 times the population of most California tribes.
The California governor is not too enamored of the Indian tribes, which spent nearly $13 million to block him from becoming governor. According to the Los Angeles Times, Schwarzenegger has aired television ads critical of the American Indian tribes for not paying their fair share to the state. This is the theme of the current ads now running that are financed by the card rooms and racetracks.
Fifty-three of California's 107 Indian tribes have licenses to operate 62,000 slot machines. Those with large casinos are required to pay about $130 million a year into two funds to aid tribes that have small gambling operations or none and to ease the local effects of their casinos.
Card rooms and racetracks are trying to get an initiative on November's ballot that would require the tribes to pay 25 percent of their gambling profits, about $1 billion per year, to state and local governments.
Secrecy
Recent meetings between Schwarzenegger and the Indian tribes are held in secrecy. The governor has been meeting with tribal leaders and their attorneys in an effort to forge new gaming compacts. Speculators say that the new compacts would make the tribes pay $500 million a year to the state for the right to have unlimited expansion of gaming on their land. In addition they would give the state a one-time payment of $1 billion to help close the $14 billion budget deficit. Wow!
And through it all, the majority of California residents strongly support Indian gaming. Most people believe Indians got a fundamentally bad deal from the United States by being placed on the worst available land and for having to live in the worst poverty for the past 100 years. Twenty years ago most of the state's combined 107 Indian tribes would have had trouble raising $1,000 for the state government. Where was California's government then when it came to assisting them with their most basic needs?
Indian casinos have become so lucrative in California that some tribes are kicking tribal members off their rolls to reduce the number of people receiving per capita payments. There are stories of wealthy financiers seeking out small numbers of people willing to pass as Indians and putting up the money to help them form a tribe.
Most of us knew that it would just be a matter of time before this happened. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has not helped in the matter. They have been handing out federal recognition to questionable Indian tribes like they were awarding diplomas. With diploma in hand, some of these newly formed tribes are now very wealthy.
We have to stop this nonsense. I implore my readers to contact their Congressional delegation and beg them to force the BIA to include one other provision in the criteria for federal recognition: make it a part of the recognition process that every newly recognized tribe must wait at least 10 years before opening a casino.
This would force the financiers to think twice before dolling out money to support groups seeking federal recognition. They don't have the patience to wait 10 years for a return on their investment.
It might be a scary thing to the Indian nations, but I believe that it is also high time that the United States Congress take another look at the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. It was written in haste, filled with waste; now is the time to make it chaste.
XTim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is editor and publisher of the Lakota and Pueblo Journals. He is the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists Association. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.