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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.
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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.