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Chapter 4: The Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico: Efforts to Develop a Casino on Nonreservation Land
- University of Nevada Press
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chapter 4 The Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico Efforts to Develop a Casino on Nonreservation Land william a. taggart 74 Indian gaming operations have existed in the state of New Mexico for over a quarter century, though not always “legally” from either a federal or a state perspective. Much like the story in other states, Indian gaming in New Mexico pre-dates the Indian Gaming Regulatory act (igra) of 1988 (Mason 2000). admittedly, these gaming venues were limited primarily to bingo operations, although the Mescalero apache Tribe offered table games and slot machines at a casino outside the winter resort community of Ruidoso. With passage of igra, the state and various Indian nations with gaming interests spent thirteen turbulent years searching for an acceptable compacting agreement (Mason 2000; Mays and Taggart 2005). This negotiation process , fraught with political infighting, legal maneuvering, and power politics , was accompanied by a continued expansion of Indian gaming activities in the state. In less than twenty years following passage of igra, over half of the state’s twenty-two federally recognized pueblos and tribes were operating gaming establishments under approved compacts, almost exclusively in the central or northern parts of the state. j e m e z p u e b l o i n n e w m e x i c o 75 In the summer of 2004, the Pueblo of Jemez announced with much fanfare its intention to bring a casino to southern New Mexico, along a major east-west interstate corridor (I-10). although the announcement was perhaps noteworthy since it involved a part of the state essentially devoid of gaming activities, its significance extended far beyond the entry of another player into what was already seen by many as a crowded market in a state with fewer than two million residents. What makes this effort inherently different is that the Jemez Pueblo is located in a comparatively less marketable region of the state and its proposal was to build the state’s first casino on nonreservation land. such an action, currently permitted under igra, requires a tribe to traverse a less frequently followed approval process and necessitates a much more focused approach on concerns and interests at the local, nontribal level. This chapter examines the efforts of the Jemez to realize their goal of bringing Indian gaming to anthony, New Mexico, a relatively impoverished community of eight thousand inhabitants in southern New Mexico. anthony is twenty miles to the west of a major metropolitan area of approximately two million people spanning El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico . To the west of anthony, roughly within the same driving distance, is the city of Las Cruces, the second largest city in New Mexico, with slightly under 100,000 residents. although thwarted thus far, this attempt by the Jemez to develop a casino presents a set of issues not typically explored in the Indian gaming literature. a critical element in establishing a casino on nonreservation land is submitting an application to the U.s. Department of the Interior to place land into trust, an application that considers the conditions and interests of the surrounding local community. The proposal met with mixed reactions, and the Jemez found it necessary to promote their plan in a political environment generating considerable opposition. Guided by the theoretical materials presented in the introductory chapter to this volume pertaining to the activities of interest groups, this investigation examines how the Jemez sought to cultivate local support for their proposal, while dealing with competing interests in the immediate region. The remainder of this chapter is divided into four parts. In the next section , I offer a short but necessary overview of casino gaming in New Mexico to establish the political and economic context confronting the Jemez in the pursuit of their goal. I then provide an equally brief but important [3.81.57.77] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 09:07 GMT) 76 t h e n e w p o l i t i c s o f i n d i a n g a m i n g examination of igra as it relates to establishing a Class III gaming facility on nonreservation land, a process elaborated on by the Interior Department after the Jemez, as well as several other Indian nations around the country, had submitted their application. The third section turns to the case study informing this investigation, which describes the interest group activities of the Jemez on several complementary dimensions at the...