Government, Indian Nations Need To Talk
The state of Indian gaming in America can only be described as one of chaos. Indian tribes are trying to deal with 50 different regulatory offices, each with a different set of rules and guidelines.
When the federal government, in its infinite wisdom, decided to allow state governments to issue compacts to the Indian tribes within their state boundaries, it opened a huge can of worms.
Since that infamous day in 1988, the 500 Indian nations of the Western hemisphere have had to negotiate compacts with 50 different states, some cooperative and some combative. They have had to deal with every conceivable approach. And what is worse, the Indian nations have been, for the most part, acting individually. This has created a checkerboard set of rules and regulations. What is legal for one tribe in one state is illegal for another tribe in another state.
Like everything else the federal government decides to meddle in, a terrible mess has been created. Since the historic act legalizing Indian gaming under the National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is only 8 years old, the only way to straighten it out is to scrap it and start over. The government can not be fair to the Indian nations when it has forced them to comply with a hodgepodge of regulations impossible for even the most sophisticated corporate executive to understand.
New Mexico, which borders Arizona, is fighting tooth and nail to prevent the Indian tribes of that state from operating casinos although many have already expended millions of dollars constructing and equipping them. If New Mexico succeeds, many of the tribes will go bankrupt. Arizona is looking at ending all compacts when the present agreements come up for renewal. Since several Arizona tribes have already invested millions in casinos, they also would face several financial problems if this is allowed to happen.
The federal and state governments were in such a panic to regulate Indian gaming in 1988 that they pushed through regulations that were poorly thought out and impossible to enforce. They left the Indian nations at the mercy of adversarial state governments. Several Indian tribes were so greedy they would have signed any scrap of paper placed in front of them in order to open a casino. They cared little for their own sovereignty and even less for the damage they would do to all of the other Indian nations because of their thoughtless haste.
Some signed compacts with the states that required them to pay state taxes. Others, rather than buckle to the threats by the state of signing compacts with tax stipulations or being denied gaming casinos, told the state government to take a hike. They would not surrender their sovereignty with a gun to their head.
I believe the time has come for the federal government and the Indian nations to sit down at one table and hammer out a new Indian Nation Gaming Act. They have already proven beyond a doubt that the word “regulatory” has no place in a gaming act. The “regulatory” in the act was always shaded in favor of the states anyway. Since tribal governments have the same status as state governments, neither should have been given an advantage over the other.
A set of gaming regulations must be implemented that provides for uniformity for all Indian tribes. There is little difference in the rate of poverty on Indian reservations, and to allow a quagmire of regulations that favor some tribes and punish others is ridiculous.
If the Indian nations of this country, including those that were so greedy they sacrificed their own sovereignty and threatened that of the other tribes, would get together and form a powerful union of tribes to seek a new act to cover Indian gaming, they would have as much clout as the already unified state governments. The state governments did not achieve their goals to limit Indian gaming by acting separately.
It’s time the tribes stopped running in different directions. It’s high time they came to Washington, D.C., with a game plan. The only solution to the gaming problem is to trash the present gaming law and to initiate a new one more favorable to the Indian nations. The first consideration is to determine how much authority, if any, should rest in the hands of the federal government over Indian gaming.
If the gaming tribes unite, there should not be a lack of funds to pursue this larger goal. Every successful Indian gaming tribe should bury its own self-interests and act for the good of all tribes. A complete overhaul of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is a must. There is no other way to ensure that all Indian tribes are treated equally. The power to issue compacts must be taken out of the hands of the state governments. The Indian nations must be treated as the sovereigns they are.
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