Indian Gaming: Why is the Backlash Growing?

Articles

SECRET OF INDIAN CASINOS: EVERYONE WINS
Part one of a series

Posted: December 13, 2002 - 12:00pm EST
by: Jim Adams / Managing Editor / Indian Country Today

The TIME Magazine cover story "Look Who’s Cashing in at Indian Casinos" presents a competent picture of some alleged negatives of the industry, such as the big returns that accrued to some of its early investors, but like other entries in the genre, it remains remarkably silent on the economic impact of a business enterprise that grew from nowhere in the last decade.

Yet a number of econometric studies by well respected research groups have uniformly shown dramatic benefits, not only for the relative handful of hugely profitable casinos but also for the Class II bingo hall and pull-tab facilities and not only for the gaming tribes but for their neighbors. Here are some of the results.

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TIME MARCHES ON INDIAN COUNTRY
Part one of a series Posted: December 13, 2002 - 9:08am EST by: David Melmer / Indian Country Today

PINE RIDGE RESERVATION, S.D. - Plains and Midwestern tribal gaming officials and leaders are banding together to combat the Dec. 16 TIME Magazine cover story on Indian casinos. They are unified in calling it a scathing, unprofessional piece of yellow journalism that does not present current factual data.

"When a government attacks its enemy it goes through the media to demonize that group of people," said John McCarthy, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association (MIGA). "This is against Indian people."

The story implies that a vast amount of the revenue from tribal gaming goes to the white entrepreneurs who set up the gaming enterprise in the first place. McCarthy replied that most of those investors are now out of the picture and the two reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele are a few years behind the times. "They don¹t mention the fact that few lenders would touch anything in Indian country in the first place," McCarthy said. Gaming officials also charged that neither of the reporters understood sovereignty or the cultural diversity of the tribal nations.

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GAMING LEADERS DENOUNCE TIME SLANT

Posted: December 13, 2002
by: James May, Indian Country Today

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - An outcry from Indian country charges that a TIME Magazine cover story on Indian gaming failed even to make an attempt at balance.

"The TIME reporters turned their backs on the facts," said Morongo chairman Maurice Lyons.

TIME¹s lengthy cover story, written by Pulitzer-winning editors at large Donald Barlett and James Steele, questions whether rank and file Indians are actually benefiting from the tribal casino boom. The story casts a wide net covering several different aspects of Indian gaming.

However, Indian gaming consultant Michael Lombardi, who debated the article¹s authors in a live broadcast on Los Angeles National Public Radio station KPCC, thinks they did not cast the net far enough.

"I was amazed at the lack of understanding that these gentlemen had for what Indian gaming is supposed to be," said Lombardi. The main problem, according to Lombardi, was the lack of understanding of the basic premise of tribal sovereignty.

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FOR TIME MAGAZINE, SOVEREIGNTY 101
(Part two of a series)

Posted: December 23, 2002 - 2:55pm EST
by: Jim Adams / Managing Editor / Indian Country Today

(Perhaps the most basic problem of the TIME Magazine series on Indian gaming is that it completely misunderstands the constitutional structure of Indian country, which is also the most basic flaw of all critiques of Indian gaming. The following excerpt, which originally appeared in Native Americas magazine, attempts to explain the context of tribal sovereignty, undeniably one of the most important principles in Indian Country today.)

Although Indian Country takes different approaches to gaming, it shows near unanimity in support of the political and legal structure that makes Indian gaming possible. As tribal lawyers frequently observe, the casinos are a by-product of the inherent sovereignty of the Indian nations. Sovereignty doctrine underlies the court decisions setting the gaming framework. According to U.S. constitutional doctrine of recent decades, Congress can and has limited tribal sovereignty in applying state criminal law to reservations. But it generally has refused to let states impose their civil law. This distinction is the core of the 1987 Supreme Court case California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians.

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TIME's LIES THREATEN INDIAN AGENDA

By Rob Schmidt
January 29, 2003

PECHANGA INDIAN RESERVATION — Last week’s Western Indian Gaming Conference was the first major opportunity for Natives to address Time’s hatchet job on Indian casinos, and they took advantage of it. Their reactions ranged from "yellow journalism" to "lies and trash."

Jacob Coin, executive director of CNIGA, devoted his thoughts at the opening session to Time’s report. Will it influence the legislative agenda for Indians? he asked. His answer was an unfortunate yes.

Time’s premise was that Indian gaming is untaxed, unregulated, and unfair competition, said Coin—all of which is untrue. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission heard from more than 100 tribal witnesses at seven field hearings. Its conclusion, according to Coin: "Indian gaming is every bit as well regulated as state gaming."

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FOR TIME MAGAZINE, DINÉ REJECTION OF CASINOS A CULTURAL CHOICE
by: Valerie Taliman Southwest Bureau Chief Indian Country Today

The TIME Magazine "Special Report Indian Casinos" may be most objectionable for its omissions. In its Dec. 23 installment, it several times compares the finances of the Navajo and Hopi Nations, with no money at all from casinos, to the "lucky few" with casinos. The writers neglect to add that the Navajo and Hopi refused to enter the gaming business by their own free will, because of strong cultural objections. The following article by Southwest correspondent Valerie Taliman explains these objections, and some of the Navajo’s second thoughts.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - With hundreds of tribes pursuing or operating casinos, the 250,000-member Navajo Nation has stood out as an anomaly for its resistance and opposition to gambling within its borders.

Twice in the last eight years, the Navajo Nation government has put gaming to a vote of the people. And twice it was defeated by roughly 54 percent of voters. In 1994’s general election, the referendum measure on gaming was defeated by a vote of 23,450 in favor and 28,073 opposed. In 1997, during a special election, the vote was 15,224 in favor and 18,097 opposed.

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TIME AND TIME AGAIN
Not just misinformation, but a dangerous agenda

By Katherine A. Spilde

On December 16, 2002, Time Magazine ran a cover story on Indian gaming called “Wheel of Misfortune: Why Indian Casinos Aren’t All They’re Promised to Be.” This story, the first in a two-part series, claimed to be an “investigative report” into the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) and the impacts of Indian gaming. The second part of the Time series, “Playing the Political Slots: How Indian Casino Interests Have Learned the Art of Buying Influence in Washington,” appeared a week later. The authors, senior editors at Time, heavily promoted the series on television and radio for the weeks after its publication. While new in its national reach, the Time series is simply one more diatribe in the cycle of misinformation about Indian gaming. This time, however, tribal sovereignty itself is the target.

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