On page 62 of your textbook, you'll find a picture of a
member of the Canadian Mohawk tribe holding up a sign that says "Mohawks don't need casinos to survive!" The growth
of casino gambling on Indian Reservations in the United States, as your textbook points out, caused disputes within
some tribes over the appropriateness of such a strategy for achieving prosperity. One of the most financially
successful examples of casino-driven prosperity is that of the Mashantucket Pequots, in Connecticut. After having
successfully challenged centuries-old illegal sales of their native lands, they fought for and won Federal tribal
recognition in 1983, opened a successful bingo hall in 1986, and in 1992 opened the Foxwoods Resort and Casino.
Foxwoods was, by 1995, the largest casino in the United States, directly employing over 10,000 locals
(mostly non-Natives) and entertaining more than 16 million visitors annually. In 1996 the casino contributed some
$550 million to the state of Connecticut in the form of taxes and slot proceeds. See the Foxwoods Web site at:
http://www.foxwoods.com/
. Click on "The Mashantucket Pequots" to learn how the
tribe presents itself to visitors. The history of the tribe suggests some important questions:
Did the Pequots need a casino to survive?
How have the profits from the resort been used by the tribe?
Of course, with success has come a great deal of controversy.
Read this
CBS News report by correspondent Steve Kroft
on the controversy surrounding the Pequot claims
of tribal status. In 2003, Brett Fromson published the book Hitting the Jackpot: The Inside Story of the Richest
Indian Tribe in History in which he questions the legitimacy of today's Pequots as a bona fide Indian tribe.
Fromson's book has, itself, generated criticism, such as this commentary by Rick Green.
Should Native-American tribes be allowed to do what they want with their tribal lands? For additional insight
into this question, see an
Outside Magazine article on the Goshute Tribe
article on the Goshute Tribe in Utah and their decision to accept
nuclear waste dumping on their tribal lands.
Did the Supreme Court make the right decision when it
ruled that Indian tribes, as sovereign nations, had a right to run their own gambling operations on tribal land?
Given the nature of the history of relations between Native-Americans and the U.S. government, these are, understandably,
difficult questions to address. As mentioned in your textbook, reservations account for just over 2 percent of the land area of the
United States. Consider that fact in light of the comment made by one resident of Connecticut quoted in the CBS report:
"What ever happened to one nation under God indivisible? I have a real problem with this country being set up
where there are different rights for different groups — different privileges, different immunities." Do you think
Indian tribes are being given special privileges? Do you think that the Pequot tribe was considered equal citizens
of the United States—"under God indivisible"—when their land was illegally sold in 1853?
Here it is also interesting to note the economic benefit Foxwoods has brought to the state of Connecticut.
See a