Friday, October 23, 1998
Casinos beneficial to reservations
PROPOSITION: U.S. has chance to uphold deal with Native
Americans
Oh great, not again … "Hey, where’s the remote? Becky, please
put this crap on mute. If I have to hear this commercial one more
time I am going to puke."
While watching yet another polished politician silently blabbing
beside flashing headlines, one cannot help but wonder where the
class has gone in today’s political campaigns. I’ll tell you where;
it sold out and moved to some tropical island far, far away,
leaving us with nothing more than 30-second spots of truth-bending,
condescending slanders.
Today’s politicians have replaced their soapboxes with hollow,
two-dimensional platforms built of nothing more than empty promises
and circular arguments. I’ve heard that 100 years ago politicians
would debate a single issue for three hours. Now we are lucky to
get three minutes of drivel.
In fact, who really understands what they’re voting for anymore?
So here I am to contribute my take on an issue that I believe most
people do not know enough about: Indian Gaming, and more
specifically Proposition 5.
I will start by admitting that I have never been to a casino,
and furthermore I am not sure exactly where I stand on the practice
of gambling. But I also know that casino-style gaming has been
operating in California on reservations for over a decade, and I do
not know anyone whose life has been drastically affected or altered
by them  that is, except the people who actually live on
those reservations.
I also know that people are going to gamble if they want to. If
it means having to drive an extra four hours, people will do it.
So, who better to be receiving the profits … the high-rolling
fat-cats in Nevada or groups of impoverished people working to give
their communities a chance at self-sufficiency and cultural
redemption? And please do not forget to also consider that it is
those very same Nevada interests that are largely funding the
anti-Indian-gaming ads you see on television.
It is also important that I tell you where I have been; I have
lived on a Navajo reservation that did not have any steady means of
income. It is a place where some people live in housing without
running water or electricity, a place where children are subject to
poverty and neglect, a place where the closest medical attention is
a two-hour drive away, and a place where there are close to no
opportunities for higher education, upward mobility or even steady
employment.
This reservation is a place in the United States that rivals the
conditions of any third-world country.
Today, California gaming reaps many benefits for this state and
for the native communities who reside within it. On reservations,
unemployment has been reduced by 50 percent and welfare dependency
has dropped by 68 percent.
Reservations now have thriving businesses that provide abundant
opportunities for employment, and its revenues have improved
education and living standards by leaps and bounds.
Also, Proposition 5 requires that a trust fund be set up so that
a share of gaming profits from Indian casinos be shared among all
reservations in California, including those that do not have gaming
casinos.
For California, gaming has the potential to provide 50,000 jobs
for Native Americans and non-Native Americans, reduce California
welfare taxes by $50 million a year and create booming economies in
many Californian towns.
Finally, it is also important to acknowledge the historical
context from which this debate emerges.
When the United States government took power over this continent
centuries ago, tribes were guaranteed the right to self-government.
Thus, this enabled the U.S. government to make treaties with Native
American communities in order to acquire land. It was a more
practical approach to land acquisition since the United States did
not have the means after the American Revolution to embark on a
money and time-consuming military expedition.
But as soon as the United States gained the influence and
control to renege the goods and rights promised to tribes in
exchange for land, they did not hesitate to do so.
For the next few centuries, the U.S. government employed a
schizophrenic, flighty and often downright despicable attitude
toward the indigenous population.
This resulted in an embarrassing habit of abandoning or ignoring
every policy the United States has ever established with native
groups the instant the U.S.government no longer profited from the
agreement  from planned genocide to the attempt to
concentrate native peoples in an established and protected "Indian
Country," to the movement to assimilate Indians into white culture
through land allotment, to the attempt to terminate all federal aid
to tribes and relocate individuals in cities.
Today, the United States reserves the right to something called
"Plenary Power," which basically states that the government has the
right to break any treaty or agreement they have ever made with
Native American groups the moment they wish to do so.
The only thing that keeps the government from doing so is public
opinion, which is where you come in.
In light of the agreement that reservations are sovereign
nations and thus exempt from state laws, some tribes realized that
it would be possible to refurbish their economy and community by
establishing a gaming casino. Tribes had finally found a way to
regenerate their economies that would not compromise their
spiritual attachment to the earth, as opposed to other options such
as mining.
In regards to the scare tactics the Nevada casinos are utilizing
to protect their own interests: if Proposition 5 passes, tribes are
still required to negotiate with the secretary of interior and the
governor. Proposition 5 merely requires that the tribes are not
denied the right to negotiate, an important clause considering the
history of shady and selfish dealings that the United States is
responsible for.
Also, it is important to know that Indian casinos are exempt
from state taxes because there is a U.S. law that states that
reservations are federal trust lands and therefore exempt from
state taxes. Moreover, tribes have agreed to adopt California
building safety standards for casinos, and create unions and the
option for collective bargaining for all casino employees.
As the agreement stands today, any tribe wishing to enter into a
compact is subject to the loss of sovereignty, and to the loss of
land use and control that they were promised by the U.S.
government.
Casinos are not the final answer to improving the lives of those
on reservations, but it is an essential step. Through time these
people have been cheated out of their land, subjected to extreme
abuse, and denied the goods and services they were promised.
Despite centuries of hardships, these tribes have found a way to
raise their communities out of tragedy.
So please, let’s not allow the U.S. government to break its word
again. I am sick of hanging my head in history classes.
Vote ‘yes’ on Prop 5.Catie Snow Bailard
Bailard is a third-year communication studies student with a
minor in Native American studies.. Send your comments to
[email protected].
Comments, feedback, problems?
© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]