Opinion: Off-reservation casino mocks Indian gaming

Friday, August 3, 2007  

"The fact that it is even possible to create Indian lands and assemble a federally recognized Indian tribe where neither previously existed, and to do so solely for the purpose of creating a casino, is ludicrous. It is certainly far beyond the intent of the 1987 Supreme Court decision that affirmed a right of Indian tribes to conduct gaming operations on their lands.

It was the Morongo Indians of Cabazon whose successful legal appeal against the state of California and Riverside County paved the way for the growth of the Indian gaming industry. The court held that Indian tribes have the exclusive right to conduct gaming, or any other economic activity, on their lands if the same activity is not otherwise prohibited by the state.

In fact, the court noted that the Morongos were actually following the specific policy of the federal government, that being the pursuit of economic self-sufficiency through development of their tribal lands (emphasis added). The court noted as well that gaming was the single source of revenue for the Morongo tribe as well as the major source of employment for tribal members. Finally, the court recognized that the gaming was conducted entirely within the boundaries of the Morongo tribal lands, a remote area containing no natural resources that could otherwise be exploited.

In other words, relegated to a life of poverty and confined as they were to a patch of then semi-worthless land, the Morongos and all other tribes in a similar situation could not and should not be denied the opportunity to lawfully improve their economic lot.

In contrast, Garden Grove is considering a proposal to create new Indian lands using its redevelopment authority. The city has most recently been in contact with an Indian group called the Gabrielino-Tongva, whose 1,360 members have no tribal lands and are dispersed throughout Southern California. In this latest scenario, the Indian group has offered to develop two, 1-million-square-foot casino resorts along Harbor and share the riches with the city and, through college scholarships, its schoolchildren.

This proposal to to grab a piece of the multibillion-dollar Indian gaming industry may be a fine example of opportunistic capitalism but it is neither an example of appropriate municipal governance nor the pursuit of economic self-sufficiency for an impoverished Indian nation. It is the municipal equivalent of a tax dodge, complying with the letter of the law (for profit, of course) while making a mockery of its original intent."

Get the Story:
Kenneth Swift: The Orange Grove: Casino gambit off the reservation (The Orange County Register 8/3)