The Political Influence of Indian Gaming

1
The Political Influence of Indian Gaming

• Anthropology 85A
• Sharon Cho
• Haila Lee

2
HISTORYbrief background

• Indian Reorganization Act (1934)
• - part of the New Deal program by Roosevelt
• - set up foundations for future Indian gaming
• - encouraged Indians to form government write
  constitutions
• - allowed the applications for federal loans
• Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (1988)
• - established the jurisdictional framework that
  presently governs Indian gaming
• - requires gaming tribes to have compacts with
  their respective governments specifying types of
  gaming permitted on reservation lands

3
INTRODUCTIONCalifornia Indian Gaming

• Indian Gaming Regulatory Act did not end the
  disputes on gaming between the tribes the
  states
• Proposition 1A (2000)
• - allow the Governor and federally recognized
  Indian tribes to negotiate compacts permitting
  specified gambling activities on tribal lands in
  California
• - authorize slot machines, lottery games, and
  banked and percentage card games only on tribal
  lands and only under the terms of ratified
  compacts
• - since the passage of Prop. 1A Indian gaming
  has generated revenues of 5.1 billion per year
  in California and they have become the largest
  contributor to California political campaigns

4
INDIAN GAMINGpros cons of Proposition 1A

• Pros
• - Indian casinos on tribal lands permit Native
  Americans to be self-reliant, and all
  Californians benefit from 50,000 jobs they
  provide for Indians and non-Indians
• - this measure allows for the sharing of
  revenues with non-gaming tribes to use for vital
  services including education, housing, and health
  care
• Cons
• - the number of slot machines would increase to
  possibly 113,000, placing California second only
  to Nevada in the total allowed in a state
• - there are about 700,000 problem and
  pathological gamblers in the state, with another
  1.8 million at risk who need help to stop not
  to start gambling

5
INDIAN GAMINGportrayal of Indians post- Prop. 1A
6
What does this cartoon portray?

• since the passage of Proposition 1A, Native
  Americans have been cast as no longer a humble,
  responsible, community-oriented people. Instead,
  they have been relegated to casino tribes and
  casino barons, intent on skirting environmental
  and social obligations, corrupting the political
  process, and violating the public's trust
• these stereotypes have the potential to create a
  new type of intolerance that Native Americans
  have never experienced - class envy
• "greedy" Indian is the latest in a series of
  related stereotypes
• - Savage/ Uncivilized/ Good-for-nothing
  Indians

7
INDIAN GAMINGcriticisms
8
Rise of Political Power of Indians
9
NATIVE AMERICANSrise of political power

• Implications that Indians control the state
• Entered the political arena by donating large
  sums of money to both Democratic and Republican
  candidates
• Gaming has become so lucrative that hundreds of
  Native Americans are petitioning the Bureau of
  Indian Affairs for recognition of new California
  tribes in order to buy land and build casinos

10
(No Transcript)
11
NATIVE AMERICANSdisputes on sovereignty

• Throughout the 1900s the dispute over Native
  American sovereignty was a significant political
  issue
• - many states maintained that Indians should be
  subject to state jurisdiction and that native
  tribal governments had no legitimacy as separate
  institutions
• - many tribes claimed to hold all of the rights
  to self-governance and land ownership that they
  possessed before the arrival of Europeans
• U.S. Constitution gave Congress broad power to
  regulate commerce with Indian tribes

12
NATIVE AMERICANStaxations

• Issue of whether or not California Indians are
  subject to the full array of taxes that
  non-Indians pay has led to misunderstanding and
  confusion for both Indians and non-Indians
• All residents of the U.S., including Indians,
  must pay federal income tax
• California Indians do not pay state income tax if
  they are an eligible Indian, live on a
  reservation or Indian trust allotment, and work
  on the reservation or trust allotment
• Indians are exempt from paying vehicle license
  fees by legislation signed by trust allotment
  land, but are exempt from paying sales tax on
  most sales on reservations

13
(No Transcript)
14
FEEDBACKdo they deserve this?

• Being granted federal trust lands
• Profiting from gaming
• Being exempt from state income tax, vehicle
  registration fees, etc.
• Being independent of the states jurisdiction
• Gaining federal grants and scholarships
• In a diverse group of people our survey shows
• - high school students 32 YES
• - college students 58 YES
• - post-college 54 YES

15
(No Transcript)
16
OUR OPINION

• Genocide of Indians
• - 310,000 Indians lived in California
  pre-contact
• - by 1900, 20,000 Indians remained
• - federal orchestration of mass killings

17

• Ethnocide
• - assimilation integration of Indians
• - but reservations were supposed to be temporary
  

18
Bibliography

• http//ca.lwv.org/lwvc.files/mar00/pc/prop1A.html
• http//www.igs.berkeley.edu/library/htIndianGaming
  .htm
• http//www.bluecorncomics.com/nastrips.htm
• http//www.csuchico.edu/curban/Gaming/Prop5.html
• http//www.indigenouspolicy.org/xiv-2/xiv-2-fall-2
  003.htm