Opinion: The great Indian casino camouflage

Friday, July 14, 2006  

Ed. Note: Elaine Willman is the chair of Citizens Equal Rights Alliance.

"A national pattern is emerging in areas far distant from Indian reservations. Several rural and urban regions whose longtime population is entirely unfamiliar with federal Indian policy are awakening to a systematic process that installs "Indian Country" or a constructive "reservation" as a next door neighbor to communities. Local elected officials are ill-equipped, unprepared and loathe to ever disagree or interfere with "economic development" desires of an Indian tribe.

Community residents tend to walk around shell-shocked wondering what happened. Where did this tribal government come from? Folks wake up to a tribal reservation and fully equipped tribal government where only a tribal casino was contemplated.

It begins with the off-reservation casino. When a community receives notice that an off-reservation casino is approaching, the tendency is to see only the business-venture, and to attempt to treat the tribal business-venture as any other project applicant. How will the project impact the site and adjacent environment? What infrastructure and municipal services will be affected? What about social and law-enforcement impacts? At this point in the process, no one sees the actual tribal government coming to town.

If the proposed casino is targeted for a land space already placed into federal trust for the tribal applicant, adjacent local governments and residents have minimal, if any, voice in the process. The casino literally just opens its doors once it has complied with federal law and secured a state-tribal gaming compact."

Get the Story:
Elaine Willman: THE GREAT CASINO CAMOUFLAGE (The Amherst Times 7/13)