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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1998)
2 News Smoke Signals States postpone talks to amend Indian Gaming Act By Oscar Johnson State governors, who said they were ill prepared last month backed down from preliminary talks between tribal and state officials on how fu ture debates over Native gaming en terprises will be settled. The meetings are an attempt to hash out an amendment to the Indian Gam ing Regulatory Act (IGRA) and quell six years of ongoing litigation be tween tribal and state governments over Indian run gaming. The talks were initiated by U.S. Department of Interior Secretary, Bruce Babbitt, who is the primary trustee of Indian nations and come at the urging of various State Attorneys General to amend IGRA with all speed. While the State Attorneys General indicated they may have an amenable solution to the problem, so far a June preliminary meeting only succeeded in getting the two parties to agree that neither had adequate representation and the process was too hurried. Originally, the negotiations were set for June 22 and scheduled without any warning to, or input from, tribal rep resentatives. "IGRA has only been around for a few years. I'm sure all tribes would agree the act could be fixed but let's make sure we do it fairly," said Jus tin Martin, Intergovernmental Affairs lobbyist for the Grand Ronde Tribe. "June 22 was too early and it was ridiculous to have three tribal repre sentatives speak for all of Indian Country across the United States." Martin, was one of many tribal lob byist from around the country who rushed to Washington D.C. for a stra tegic meeting on June 10 when it was announced that negotiations would begin in just a few days. "The meeting brought in a lot of tribes, the National Congress of American Indians, and the National Indian Gaming Association," Martin said. "They did a great job in rally ing tribes together in such a short amount of time." All parties have since agreed that both tribes and states will each have six places at the negotiation table; there will be additional seats for more representatives to observe the pro cess; and the six negotiators can be changed depending on topics dis cussed. After much posturing the talks were set for July 21 in Denver and nego tiators agreed to rotate hosting future meetings. However, state governors, citing the short amount of time left in the current congressional session, now propose that the negotiations resume some time in August or September. Tribal representatives expressed some concern over the delay, noting that it was lack of participation by governors that caused similar talks to fall through in 1993. Although full details of the bill have not been revealed, under the current draft tribal and state governments would enter into a compact under the Secretary of the Interior. But while states vie for more au thority over Indian gaming, Native lobbyists say the amendments will already give states too much power by letting them challenge any com pact they don't like in federal court and setting no limit on the amount of money they can require in a compact. Although it is hoped the bill will foster compacts of 'good-faith' be tween tribes and states over gaming revenues, Native lobbyists say the current language of the bill makes the agreements subject to changes in state law up to, and including, the poten tial to curtail Indian gaming alto gether. Despite the impact the IGRA amendment could have on Indian Country, Martin believes it is unlikely to effect Grand Ronde. He cites already existing good-faith examples such as Governor Kitz haber's Executive Order 9630 man dating that state agencies work to gether with tribes, as the spirit of the law that Washington legislators and lobbyists are struggling to put into letter. "I think Oregon can be used as an example," Martin said. Robin Hood bill, continued from front page we're getting to see how much we can be taxed." The bill is just one of many legisla tive attacks on Indian sovereignty is sues ranging from land-into-trust to tribal immunity from state taxes that some lawmakers are trying to tuck into next year's Interior Appropria tions budget in the form of riders. Proponents of Gorton's addition to S.2237 argue that many poor rural tribes are being left out in the cold while others become rich from casino revenues. They cite BIA figures showing that out of the 557 federally recognized tribes, the six most well-off nations received 50 percent more BIA fund ing than did the 23 tribes that lost or had no revenues and favor determin ing a tribe's funding needs by divid ing its annual income by the number of enrolled members. Although many agree the BIA's current way of determining how much to fund tribal programs needs work, they cite a litany of opposing arguments against the bill. Not least of which is that S.2237 flies in the face of Constitutional sup ports and federal Indian policy aimed to pay back tribes with programs such as social services, law enforcement and education in exchange for huge expanses of land and resources ac quired through treaties. Opponents say it is the U.S. government not tribes with casino revenues who should fulfill this obligation. Currently over 31 percent of the country's Indian population lives be low the poverty line; reservation based unemployment is at 56 percent; the murder rate on reservations where the amount of police per-capita is half that of other communities is two-and-one-half times the national average; and many reservation schools are in serious need of repair. Yet while the costs for such essen tial programs continue to rise in In dian Country, BIA funding is ex pected to be $142 million less than the bureau says it needs for 1999. Grand Ronde currently receives about $2 million in BIA funding for social services and other tribal opera tions, said Archuleta, who concedes that the amount falls short of program costs. "They have yet to meet our needs like inflation in wages and salary," he said. "We have to cover the cost of operating programs on behalf of the BIA." In addition to robbing the not-as-poor to provide for the very poor, Robin Hood opponents also note that the bill is an affront to their right to self-govern by forcing them to dis close their income. It then discriminates against Indian governments by penalizing them for increasing their revenue base something the federal government does not require of city, county or state governments, say the bill's opponents. Tribe sponsors NaCo conference The National Association of Counties (NaCo) held its 63rd annual confer ence in Portland on July 17-21. As a sponsor of the conference, Grand Ronde was the only Tribal government represented. Kathryn Harrison, Tribal Council Chair, was invited to give the invocation at the opening gen eral session, providing additional opportunities to introduce Indian culture to the national audience. An information booth was set up and staffed through a cooperative effort between Spirit Mountain Casino and tribal administration. It was designed to educate national county officials on tribal history and on the benefits of Indian gaming. rrW I 1 J rffii 4 TOP: Japanese Taiko drummers marked the opening session of the NaCo conference in Portland. BOTTOM: Angie Ellis and Justin Martin work the Grand Ronde Tribe's booth at the conference.
