Native American Politics Today
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The Gaming Industry
"The sterotype is that all Indian tribes are superwealthy because of gaming operation." -A political science professor quoted in The New York Times
___The gaming industry is becoming increasingly popular among Native American nations as a means of establishing a reliable and continuous profit. Numerous Native American tribes have opened large, successful casinos. "Tribes...look urgently to casinos as a way out of debt" (Randolph, The New York Times). It is a growing industry: "The Mohegan tribe has also been pushing plans for a $1 billion casino hotel in Massachusetts," while "The Pequot are...exploring the possibility of building resort properties in St. Croix and the Bahamas" (Rivlin, The New York Times). There has also been an increased interest from other tribes to acquire land for casinos. The Mohegan and Pequot have recently made deals with other tribes who are new the gaming industry to help develop and operate their first casinos (Rivlin, The New York Times).
___The New York Times, in two articles, looks at four tribes in particular: the Oneidas, Chippewa, Pequot, and Mohegan. The Oneidas own a casino that that "provides about 2,500 jobs to non-Indians. The tribe buys over $120 million in goods and services around the state. And the Oneidas donate millions of dollars to favored charities and communities they consider friendly to their interests" (Randolph, The New York Times). The author of the article about the Oneidas, Eleanor Randolph point out that in the 1993 deal between the Oneidas and New York state in which the purchase of the land for the casino was made, "The state got almost nothing out of that 1993 deal." In fact, Randolph says, "Mayor James Chappell of the town of Oneida...estimates that his community's tax revenues have dropped to $139,000 from $700,000 in just one year." But "others, like David Reed, supervisor of Verona, have...negotiated the Oneida way. It has been worth his while. The Oneidas are helping with a multimillion-dollar water project for Verona, plus $800,000 a year for local services" (Randolph, The New York Times).
___The second article uses the Chippewa, Pequot and Mohegan as examples. The New York Times reports that "the Chippewa have used the money to expand their land holding while building health centers and offering other services for the tribe's 29,000 members." However, the success of a few Native American tribes has been misconstrued -there is an assumption that a) all of the tribes are benefiting from the industry and b) the tribes that open successful casinos are rich. Gary Rivlin observes that "'the stereotype is that all Indian tribes are super wealthy because of gaming operation,' Professor Mason said.’That's simply not accurate.'" Rivlin also says that "so far, only a few tribes have broken out of their local niche...Only 23 tribes account for nearly half the revenues generated each year by tribal casinos, according to W. Dale Mason, a political science professor at the University of New Mexico."
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