Ada Deer: Wealthy tribes oppose Menominee Nation casino

The Menominee Tribe has petitioned the federal government to approve an off-reservation casino in Kenosha. After more than nine years of analysis, the federal government recently approved Menominee’s petition. Legally, Gov. Scott Walker has the power to make the final decision. He has asked for a consensus of all Wisconsin tribes before deciding.

Wisconsin’s eight poorer Tribes, including the Menominee, favor the Kenosha casino proposal because of the economic benefits it holds for more than 8,700 Menominee Tribal members, and Wisconsin as a whole. The three wealthy Tribes have taken the opposite position. They, who have gained so much from Indian gaming and who have used it to raise themselves out of poverty, are refusing to help a fellow Tribe achieve the same goal.

The Forest County Potawatomi’s opposition is particularly disappointing. They would undoubtedly be one of the state’s poorer tribes, except for the fact that they were able to acquire off-reservation gaming lands in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley. They acquired these lands thanks to the exact same provisions of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act that permitted the federal government to approve Menominee’s Kenosha project. As a result they are the wealthiest tribe in Wisconsin, and one of the wealthiest in the entire nation.