Column: Religion and Indian gaming advertising

Friday, July 28, 2006  

"For our North Texas listeros, the opening of a new casino nearby won’t be news. Just over the Red River in Oklahoma, the Choctaw Nation has a new gambling joint. How do we know? Because the ads are just about unavoidable.

On the radio, TV and billboards and in printed media, the notices are pretty striking. Depending on whether the medium includes sound or images, we get short snips of drum-chants and/or moments of dance. The dancer is dressed in full feathers and other regalia, moving around a fire.

Here’s something I know about American Indian religion: Drum chants and dance and fire can be considered sacred. Which would make the use of such to tout a casino like using bits of the Mass to promote, say, a church bingo game. Not cool.

But I also know that many tribal traditions include what they call “social dances.” Which is to sacred dance what some R & B is to gospel. It may look and sound a lot alike to an outsider, but the intent is far different.

So I wandered the e-landscape until I found contact information for the Choctaw Nation and popped a note asking whether there had been any dust-up about the ads."

Get the Story:
Jeffrey Weiss: Care taken with new casino ads (The Dallas Morning News 7/28)
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