News from Inchon Country
Page 9
SpiIyay Tyrooo
February 14-, 2 0 0 8
Gaming
restrictions could hurt tribes to
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all°Ays ^ diai¥ 1
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start charter school
O K L A H O M A CITY (AP) -
A proposed new federal restric
tion on the types o f slot m a
chines tribes can offer at casi
nos could cost O klahom a tribes
millions o f dollars each year, b u t
w ould b o o st funding fo r the
state's education system.
T he N ational Indian Gam ing
C om m ission wants to create a
g re a te r d is tin c tio n b e tw e e n
Class II games based on bingo
and Class III, or Las Vegas-style,
slot machines.
T he distinction is im portant
because states can only collect
a portion o f tribes' profits from
Class III games.
Indian gaming experts have
said the vast majority o f exist
ing Class II m achines w ould
b ecom e illegal in 2013 if the
new regulations, as proposed,
take effect.
Tribes have alm ost univer
sally denounced the plan as an
unfair im position on their sov
ereignty.
Two O klahoma congressmen
seem to agree, according to their
recent letters to the commission.
“I rem ain deeply concerned
that there has n o t been sufficient
consideration o f the economic
im pacts o f these proposed regu
lations,” Rep. D an B oren, D -
Okla., w rote in a Dec. 20 letter,
B oren joined Rep. T om Cole,
R-Okla., in a second letter ask
ing that the com m ent period on
th e p ro p o sed changes be ex
tended until June.
H owever, a letter signed by
10 o th e r co n g ressm en urges
“p ro m p t adoption” of the p ro
posed rules.
B oth B oren and Cole are on
th e H ouse N atural Resources
Committee, which oversees In
dian gaming.
T he 30,044 Class II machines
in O klahom a at the end o f 2006
rep resen ted 59 p ercen t o f all
such machines in the country,
e c o n o m ist A lan M eister re
ported in a study prepared for
the Indian gaming commission.
In 2004, O klahom a voters
ap p ro v ed co m p acts allow ing
tribes to offer modified Class III
slot machines.
In return, tribes m ust pay the
state 4 percent to 6 percent o f
the revenue.
T h a t m oney goes to fu n d
teac h er pay raises an d o th e r
education programs. Tribes paid
the state $54.5 million from Class
III m achine revenue in 2007,
according to the Office o f State
Finance.
M ost state tribal casinos have
incorporated Class III games,
and a few have m oved solely to
com pacted machines. However,
Class II machines still comprise
a large m ajority o f the games
available in O klahoma, Meister
reported.
M eister said th e p ro p o sed
Class II restrictions w ould force
tribes to use only com pacted
machines by 2013.
I f th at happens, O klahom a
tribes w ould have to pay the
state an estim ated $122.3 mil
lion a year in revenue-sharing
costs, M eister reported.
O k lah o m a's c u rre n t trib al
g am in g c o m p a c ts e x p ire in
2020. !
Agents accuse smuggler o f stealing N.M . artifacts
SA NTA F E ( A P ) - A ce
ramic p o t and a 1,000-year-
old ladle looted from N ew
Mexico's E l Malpais National
M o n u m en t are am ong th e
stolen artifacts identified in
a five-year federal investiga
tion into the sm uggling o f
Asian and American Indian
antiquities.
D ozens o f federal agents
raided a Los Angeles gallery
and four museums in South
ern California, including the
Los Angeles County Museum
o f A rt, searching fo r arti
facts taken from p rotected
archaeological sites in Thai-
latid, M yanm ar, C hina and
N ew Mexico.
“There's no question there
is a p ro b le m ,” said E ric
B linm an, head o f th e M u-
seum o f N ew Mexico's O f
fice ’o f Archaeological Stud
ies. “T here is so m uch public
land, and there are so few
enforcem ent officials in any
o f th e fe d e ra l ag en cies.
People; can g et away w ith
looting, at least for the short
term .” r
R obert E. O lson, a 79-year-
old dealer from Cerritos, Calif.,
was targeted in the latest raid,
according to a search warrant.
H e allegedly told an undercover
N ational Park Service agent in
2003 that he had rem oved ar
ch aeo lo g ical re so u rces fro m
N ational Park Service and U.S.
B ureau o f L and M anagem ent
lands, the search w arrant for his
hom e showed.
O lson allegedly said he had
arranged for buyers to contrib
ute som e o f these artifacts to
m useum s to claim fraudulent
tax d e d u c tio n s, th e w a rra n t
showed.
O lso n rep o rted ly to ld the
agent he had the largest collec
tion o f N ative A-merigan .ladles.,
in the w orld — seven o f which
were from Chaco Culture N a
tional Historical Park in n o rth
w estern N ew Mexico, the war
rant showed.
O lson also reportedly told the
agept a m u seu m o w n er w ho
regularly lo o ted A nasazi sites
took him to E l Malpais National
M onum ent near G rants, where
they found a ceramic storage jar,
the w arrant said.
T he next day, O lson rep o rt
edly said he returned to the site
and noticed som ething white in
a crack in the cliff, reached in
and pulled out a ladle that was
1,200 years old, according to the
warrant.
Removing archaeological re
sources from public lands w ith
o u t a p erm it is a violation o f
th e 1979 A rchaeological R e
sources P rotection Act.
T he U nited States is one o f
few countries in the world where
a n tiq u itie s can be p riv ately
owned, Blinman said.
“People have a finders-keep-
ers attitu d e to w ard any n eat
stuff. Archaeological stuff quali
fies,”
P hil Young, a form er federal
enforcem ent agent, said the lo
cation o f "ru in s" are m arked
on old U.S. Geological Survey
maps.
‘T h e w ord gets out as far as
where archaeological resources
and artifacts can be found. A nd
it only takes orie bad actor to
destroy the contextual and sci
entific inform ation for everyone
else,” he said.
T im Maxwell, an archae
ologist w ho form erly headed
th e M u se u m o f N ew
Mexico's archaeology office,
said, “people see M im bres
pots in art catalogs. They see
the prices. T h at certainly gets
people m otivated econom i
cally.”
Kayci Cook Collins, the su
perintendent at E l Malpais,
said the 115,000-acre m onu
m en t has thousands o f ar
chaeo lo g ical sites ran g in g
from the archaic period to
Spanish colonial contact.
T he m onum ent staff gets
som e help from volunteers
w ith the state H istoric Pres-
ervafean-Divisiy>n's site watch
program , but “it's hard to be
everywhere atronce,” she said.
She said it's im portant to
n o t remove, antiquities from
their context. “There's n o th
ing wrong with being delighted
at seeing a potsherd on the
ground. B ut how m uch bet
ter it is to p u t it dow n so the
next person will be delighted
in the same way,” she said.
O K L A H O M A CITY (AP) -
Indian tribes could start charter
schools in O klahom a and Tulsa
counties under a bill that w on
approval by a Senate com m it
tee.
The bill passed through com
m ittee M onday and now goes
to the Senate floor for consid
eration.
State law currently allows
only the state's largest school
districts and public universities
to establish charter schools.
Senate Co-President Pro Tem
G lenn C offee says expanding
the num ber o f groups that can
set up charter schools will give
p a re n ts m o re e d u c a tio n a l
choices for their children.
C harter schools are public
schools established by contract
w ith sponsors. T hey are less
re g u la te d th a n o th e r p u b lic
schools and often p ro m o te a
Specific curriculum or learning
method.
Archaeologist dig may have found
Chumash home foundation
SA NTA BARBARA, Calif.
(AP) - Archaeologists digging in
a garden at the Santa Barbara
M ission m ay have un earth ed
the complete stone foundation
o f a Chum ash house.
T he dig is expected to be
completed Wednesday under the
watchful eyes o f A merican In
dian representatives.
T he foundation o f the hom e
is believed to be part o f what's
left o f a Chum ash village at the
site, which is at the northeast
ern edge o f an Indian pueblo at
the mission.
M uch o f the village remains
were destroyed over the years.
In one instance, portions were
graded to make way for a park
ing lot in the 1950s and 1960s.
Mass, governor uses Indian
casino bid to trumpet his own
B O ST O N (AP) - G ov Deval
Patrick, trying to persuade law
makers to bring casino gambling
to Massachusetts, is bolstering
his jobs-and-revenue pitch with
the argum ent that the Mashpee
W am panoag Indian tribe will
beat everyone to it.
| T h? tribe • wants -the .-federal
Bureau o f Indian Affairs to ap
prove its request to place 540
acres in M iddleborough in to
federal trust - a key step for the
tribe to build a $1 billion casino.
E ven though the tribe's ca
sino could be years away, Patrick
is using it to try to gain support
for his plan to license three re
s o rt casin o s, w h ich he says
w ould generate thousands o f
jobs and $400 million in annual
tax revenue.
H e's w arning that the state
w ould lose o ut on a significant
am ount o f tax money, leaving
lawmakers to dig into state sav
ings to cover budget deficits, if
the tribe wins federal approval,
for.its la n d - „
“We can eith er do this or
have this done to us,” Patrick
said.
Patrick even p u t $30Q mil
lion in would-be casino licens
ing fees — separate from annual
tax revenue — in his state bud
g et p ro p o sal an n o u n ced last
m onth, in an effort to prod the
Legislature.