Some California tribes supported anti-Indian gaming amendment

Thursday, January 6, 2011  

"Five or six" California tribes supported a controversial amendment that would have curtailed gaming on newly acquired lands, according to a Washington, D.C., lobbyist.

Tom Rodgers, a member of the Blackfeet Nation of Montana and the owner of Carlyle Consulting, didn't identify the tribes. But he said the amendment -- which was being circulated by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) -- spurred divisions in Indian Country and ultimately led to the failure of a fix to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar.

“Ninety-nine percent of Indian country did not support what Sen. Feinstein was doing yet even that small division completely dissipated all ability to come to a final favorable Carcieri decision for Indian country," Rodgers told Indian Country Today.

The fix never came up in the final days of the 111th Congress even after passing the House as part of a continuing resolution.

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Lessons to be learned from Carcieri fix defeat (Indian Country Today 1/6)