"Indian tribes, whose businesses can be worth upwards of billions of dollars, are becoming too powerful, making too much money, and only benefiting a few – principally tribal leaders, who may or may not even be legitimate Indians or have any historic connection to the Indian tribes they govern, and the lobbyists, attorneys, financial advisers, and casino developers advising them, in the view of some. How can these tribal juggernauts be stopped?

Advocates behind the recriminalization of casinos in states across the country have come up an idea – all in the name of helping dispossessed gamblers and vulnerable Indians. Why not transform their casinos into universities? After all, casinos, with their high ceilings and open spaces, provide the perfect acoustics for lecture halls, and their dining facilities could easily accommodate throngs of ravenous students. Tribal resorts conveniently come equipped with bedrooms, which could be styled into dormitories, and conference rooms, fashioned with faxes and phone lines, are essentially makeshift research labs, minus the petri dishes and microscopes. Stripped of their profitable casinos, tribes would not be able to resist external pressure to tap into their tribal gaming revenue and divvy it up equally among all Native-Americans, whether or not the recipients have an ounce of Indian blood.

Forcing sovereign tribal nations to relinquish their wealth to groups of individuals who only appreciated the value of becoming Indian once casinos, government benefits, and easy cash were on offer, is not morally justifiable. Struggling, legitimate tribes should receive honest advice on how they too can become self sufficient instead of being forced to fleece their fellow Indians in order to survive. Yet, as the National Gambling Impact Study Commission's Final Report complained in 1999: “Again, the unwillingness of individual tribes as well as that of the National Indian Gaming Association (the tribes' lobbyists) and the National Indian Gaming Commission (the federal agency that regulates tribal gaming) to provide information to this Commission, after repeated requests and assurances of confidentiality, limited our assessment.”"

Get the Story:
Susan Bradford: A Plan to Separate Tribes from their Casinos (The Conservative Camp 4/4)

Earlier Stories:
Opinion: McCain turns deaf ear to Saginaw Chippewa man (03/29)
Opinion: 'Liberal elites' saw dollar signs in Indian tribes (3/17)