"To hear representatives of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation tell it, the politicization of the federal recognition process has made nobody happy, least of all their tribe. Because the process has become so rife with politics, it seems as if tribes are compelled to commit to building a gambling casino just to attract the necessary funds from investors to help pay for the work needed to get recognized.

It's gotten to the point that any tribe that truly didn't want to engage in gambling would have to do so just to finance the process. The vision of casino gambling, with its promise of huge revenues, has attracted more tribes to try to get federally recognized so the waiting list is decades long. At the same time it has also attracted big-money investors in the process as tribes try to fight their way through the bureaucracy.

The process of federal recognition has lost its way."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Recognition: Out Of Control (The New London Day 9/12)
pwday

Only on Indianz.Com:
Federal Recognition Database V2.0 (May 2005)

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