The New Politics of Indian Gaming: The Rise of Reservation Interest Groups

Preface

p r e f a c e vii There are a variety of perspectives that we could have taken when we conceived of a comparative study of the state politics of Indigenous gaming. We pondered a number of different ideas, such as political culture, tribal governance and administration, economic development, sovereignty, selfdetermination , law, and the like. But for the most part, our previous work has emphasized the interest group theory of reservation gaming, and as it turns out, most of our contributors also felt that this was the most appropriate angle to employ. Elements of the other ideas have been included where they are applicable, especially sovereignty, but the emergence of reservation governments as political power brokers, especially since the late 1990s, is deserving of more in-depth attention. This is not to take away from other important issues of concern to Indian Country, or to diminish developmental successes in other areas. The interest group perspective is simply intended to provide a common starting point for analyses of different states where reservation gaming takes place. It is not commentary on the morality of such politics. The relationships between states and tribal governments entered a new phase with the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory act (igra) of 1988. With this legislation, Congress essentially devolved their latent treatymaking powers with the First Nations to the states. Further adjustments were made following the 1996 Seminole Tribe v. Florida ruling, which, according to our colleagues steven Light and Kathryn Rand (with whom we agree), has disadvantaged reservation governments in their dealings with states. The solution to a weakening of tribal sovereignty post-1996 has been to employ political strategies that are more akin to those of other governments within the U.s. federal system: cities, counties, and states. For those familiar with the politics of the First Nations, this may seem unremarkable. But for others, including many political scientists who are not familiar with what goes on in Indian Country, this represents a change in the political equilibrium. Part of what makes a volume like this necessary is the lack of research on Indigenous politics in the political science literature. Preface viii p r e f a c e We certainly do not mean to imply that all of the money generated at Indigenous casinos is spent on politics. Much of the money is spent on things desperately needed on reservations, like health care, education, economic diversification, the local environment, emergency services, and tribal administration. While we are talking about millions being spent on politics, this pales compared to the billions now being generated annually by reservation casinos. and while we are pleased at the economic and political victories of many of the reservations mentioned in the pages of this volume, we also recognize that the news is not always good. Not all reservation casinos succeed. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including poor location, maladministration, and intergovernmental conflict between states and reservations . Disenrollment, inequities of distribution, and lack of opportunity remain on many reservations and rancherias. This is at best unfortunate; at worst these practices are civil rights violations. However, we do not really focus on the internal workings of tribal governments in this anthology. That is another project entirely. Instead, this work focuses on the nature of government-to-government relationships between sovereign entities. This volume includes authors from different but related academic disciplines , predominantly law, public administration, and political science. One of the editors, Kenneth Hansen, also teaches american Indian studies . However, those seeking an ethnographic, cultural, or anthropological discussion should look elsewhere. We and the contributing authors hope the target audience of social scientists, students of politics and tribal administration , and other concerned parties will find this collection interesting and informative. ...