"It is possible to have entirely conflicting emotions about the decision to deny federal recognition to the Eastern Pequot and the Schaghticoke tribes.

Both tribes began their individual journeys years before the 1987 Supreme Court decision that gave tribes the right to run gambling operations on reservations. Until then, federal recognition guaranteed tribes housing grants and business loans, but was hardly the road to wealth. Native Americans were consistently among the poorest of American groups. Reservations in many parts of the country were rampant with alcoholism and double-digit unemployment rates. For those in more remote areas of the country, such conditions still prevail.

But for tribes in more strategic locations near heavily populated areas, congressional passage of the 1988 law regulating Indian gambling changed their prospects forever. Federally recognized tribes cashed in and built casinos, gaining long-awaited prosperity. Tribes still on the waiting list to get recognized grew increasingly impatient with the interminable nature of assembling thousands of documents to satisfy a faceless federal bureaucracy. Yet other tribes with little or no chance of becoming federally recognized, but backed by powerful interests with deep financial pockets, also filed applications with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The procedures became tainted."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Relief, And Yet, Sympathy (The New London Day 10/13)
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IBIA Decisions:
Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation | Schaghticoke Tribal Nation

Only on Indianz.Com:
Federal Recognition Database V2.0 (May 2005)

Relevant Links:
Interior Board of Indian Appeals Decisions - http://www.ibiadecisions.com

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