Tribes pull in profits, grants

TULSA WORLD ^ | 10/22/2006 | By ZIVA BRANSTETTER World Projects Editor

[OKIEDOC]

Despite soaring revenues from gambling, Indians are receiving an increasing amount of federal funding.

Indian Finances: Going Up

While Oklahoma Indian tribes earn more money than ever from gaming and other businesses, they continue to collect federal grant funds for housing, medical care, education and other needs at an increasing rate, federal records show.

The pattern is the same across the country. During a three-year period examined by the Tulsa World, gaming revenues among all tribes increased about 30 percent while federal grants and loans to tribes and tribal entities jumped 44 percent.

The World analyzed a database that tracks 600 federal programs that assist governments, non-profit agencies and the private sector. The data spanned the three most recent fiscal years available, fiscal years 2002 through 2004.

During that time, federal assistance to tribal organizations rose from $5 billion to $7 billion. Indian gaming revenues increased from about $15 billion to $19 billion, the National Indian Gaming Commission reported.

There are 563 federally recognized tribes, and 226 of them have gaming operations, the commission's data show.

Tribal gaming revenues in Oklahoma more than doubled during the same period, from about $464 million to $1 billion in 2004

The tiny Modoc tribe, with 120 members in Oklahoma, received $5.2 million in federal grants during the three years, equal to $43,000 per in-state member, records show. By comparison, the grants to the 150,000 in-state Cherokees break down to about $1,400 each.

Over the years, several federal lawmakers have proposed means testing, or reducing federal funds to tribes that make money through gaming or other enterprises. Those efforts were turned back by the increasingly politically powerful tribes.

Political action committees tied to Indian gaming gave more than $13 million to congressional campaigns since 2002, the Center for Public Integrity reports.

[OKIEDOC]

Seems to me that it's time to take a long look at some of these Indian programs.

[razorback-bert]

I am waiting Indian internet gambling.

[razorback-bert]

I am for waiting Indian internet gambling.

Geez!

[kingu]

Huh. Strange story. The only money I can find going into the Modoc tribe of Oklahoma that would account for the money in the story was an EPA project started by in the 1990's, a sanitation project now ongoing for 8 years, a library grant to combine tribal libraries (with Oregon), and misc pocket grants. The sanitation project is the big ticket item, the EPA project smaller, both of which are in conjunction with the city of Miami, OK.

Now, sure, the only tribe they quote in the story is a gaming tribe (Miami & Modocs jointly own The Stables casino), but from the way it's written, you'd be expecting huge payouts, federal government building houses, etc. Instead it's a ten year old sewer project and a water treatment survey. (Neither of which I think are federal responsibilities; must be that commerce clause again! Drat you commerce clause!)

Eh. Guess I gotta swing back into the 'oh no! Indians!' mode again.

[RicocheT]

"Political action committees tied to Indian gaming gave more than $13 million to congressional campaigns since 2002..."

Our congress critters have been bought by the casino Indians and our tax money continues to flow to the Indians.

Wis. Gov. Doyle was elected on casino Indian money and will get reelected by the same money guys. He gave the casinos a contract for all sorts of gambling the month after his first election and the Indians get to decide how much they will pay out of their profits to our state, no tax obligation at all.

[jeremiah]

A lot of these tribes are in violation of the terms of their treaties. I think a case could be made to void them, unless they come into compliance. Look up a few, and you will find one thing most have in common, they are supposed to not have anything to do with spirits.....booze. Now they sell it in their own liquor stores, serve it in the casinos. There is a reason that there is a gaming commission in Nevada, to keep out organized crime, and rake in taxes. Indian tribes don't pay taxes, and of course organized crime has been extinguished in America.

[Eska]

Indians in lower 48 must be alot different than up here in Alaska. Been the only white boy in nativeland and saw another side of the picture; and was alot different than my conservative urban alaskan take on things.

Indians up here are being displaced in the scheme of things. They have lost bout everything they started with and process isn't slowing down with progress.

The alcohol is behind everything. 100 years back were 400 Indians in our community, now only 28 remain, 5 don't drink, and the rest spend every govt penny on booze. Pretty good sharing people just the same. Govt should give all the blm lands back to villages, much better caretakers than govt and might wean them off Great White Father welfare with development.

Had a 15 year old once tell me that Indians didn't blame us whites on the alcohol probs, it was just a clash of our cultures; pretty close to the truth too.

[kenth]

I don't agree with casinos necessarily as the only option of economics for the various tribes, but why do some of you get so upset at their existence? Have you seen the economic opportunities, or lack thereof, on some reservations?

I would think a bunch of capitalist small government conservatives would enjoy seeing a group of people being able to grow economically and find a way to get around certain tax rules. Instead, most of the time, these threads devolve into people calling for government reigning in the Indians, instead of calling for more freedom for themselves.

Did you know that many tribes contract with corporations such as Harrah's to build and run their casinos, and only take a percentage of the profits? They aren't necessarily making a killing, and the ones who are, why begrudge them that? Because they're Indians? That's the only reason I find on these threads, is a bigotry toward us. That money would be worthless if not turned back in to the economy, which it does find its way. Indians purchase cars, groceries, etc. the same as everyone else.

As for tax obligations to the states, they have none. They are like a state unto themselves. But, depending on where the individual members live and work, they do pay taxes.

[RicocheT]

If Indians want to spend money on houses or cars, fine. But, when the Indian casino interests are among the top three contributors to Gov. Doyle's campaign fund, they irk me. The other two are the state teacher's union and the trial lawyers.

The Indians got wide open gambling, the teachers more money in their pockets and less to pupil instruction and the trial lawyers got a liberal state supreme court. I got more taxes, more bunk lawsuits and grandmas blowing their S.S. in casinos.

[jeremiah]

The state of WA has allowed the tribes to purchase existing hotels or casinos, refurbish them and bring them into the tribal lands. I read a report the other day, that the govt was angry with them because the tribal members were being paid more than the feds allowed from the casino business. Something like 35,000 a year. The elders were making 5 times that amount. There is something wrong in Alaska, that would see so many tribal members disappearing, or drinking to excess. Are you sure they didn't just move away, or not count them because they inter-married?

[Eska]

Wife and I have taught in a couple different villages; problems pretty much the same, everything related to alcohol abuse. 80% of native kids FAS, (they can't learn academics in the normal manner). Over half the kids in villages die before 25; shootings, stabbings, suicide, alcohol, freeze drunk in snowbanks, and typically most girls are raped by 10 and quite a few boys too; vicious cycle of learned dysfunctional behavior. It's real sad, natives are pretty decent people once you begin to realize what has happened. You almost have to live in an indian village to understand the problems. I once thought I had it all figured out from my conservative perspective; boy there's 2 sides to every story.

In my village, I have one indian friend that hasn't had a drink in 15 years, yet he has lost 5 of his own kids to booze. Burn up drunk in their cabin, freeze to death, get drunk and kill someone or shoot themselves, just on and on.

I've helped dig graves in the middle of winter, had indian friends lifeflighted out of here, heart stopping on the way, know a few blind natives, and just watched the continuous cycle of pain and death from the booze. If they could get a handle on the booze, they wouldn't need any govt money to straighten everything out; cause they're good sharing people part of their culture and character.

[jeremiah]

It is not racist to say that those peoples that were on this continent before the Europeans, should not drink and cannot handle alcohol. It is in many of the treaties that they negotiated with the federal govt. I am of the opinion, that the tribal leaders pushed that, they knew better than anyone the destructiveness of booze on their people.

[Eska]

Everyone knows they shouldn't drink, with Indians it's completely outta control. Maybe I sound racist now, but I have lived in villages. You can't compare natives to whites; for most part (up here) they were a stone age peoples, 50 years back. They don't think, act, or evaluate the world like we do. We begin going wrong when we judge them on our value system, how we were raised. Their culture is so much different than the dominent American culture, add in the 5 generations it takes for a people to assimilate into dominent culture and you see why it is what it is.

Alcohol has become part of their cultural identity up here and they are dissapearing as a people. Our village won't exist in 50 years. Our govt gives them just enough to keep them dying from booze, and refuses to close white run package stores no matter how much the village leadership begs them to be shut down. Almost like govt sponsered genocide.

One village we taught at had protected their lands for a 1000 years, killed a huge Russian expedition in 1840's to the last man. They controlled lands 150 miles in each direction around their village. When white gold miners moved in turn of century, they got along with indians or were run off, don't matter if America bought a Brooklyn Bridge from Russia, Indians were already here. In 1940's Fed govt tried getting Indians to stay put in one permanent village, rather than moving seasonally all over their lands (hunting fishing, ect). Govt couldn't homestead land with Indians moving around, controlling it. Indians would have just killed any homesteaders that didn't respect their rights, any whites on land did that and got along fine. So feds came in right after WWII and took all their kids off them and sent them 800 miles away to schools down Juneau way. Indians didn't see their kids for 2-3 years, many kids died, and many were sexually abused. In 1947, one father begged govt to get their kids back. Govt told them to build a permanent village, get all his relatives to live there and build log cabin school and they'd become proper Americans and we'll give you your kids back if you keep your mouth shut. Indians believed govt and lost 90% of their land holdings as the feds let whites homestead Indian lands. Before they had permanent village, they controlled their lands by seasonal movements. They actually had it stolen off them as they had no legal where with all, nor could read or write. The native kids today drive 5 miles out of village and see whites building houses on their traditional trail to neighboring village and are outraged. THey say: how did this happen, How did they steal my grandmas land? That white guy just built a house on a sacred place and is trashing it. Ton of pent up anger that just keep getting worse. Only answer is to give it back to Indians or hope they all die out from booze, and that's what is occurring.

Ya know, you can never begin to understand the Indian problem up here unless you've been the only white boy in a village for a year, and that reverse in your face racism does everyone some good. Mostly whites up here look down on Indians, Indians feel it and don't like it. I get along fine with Indians, don't give them money, don't get them booze, and don't drink with them, would share anything else in my house with them as they are good people deep inside. Give you the shirt off their back if they like ya. All you got to do is respect the good parts of their culture, respect them as a human being, and treat them as you would want treated and you won't find better people. Just never begin to judge them from our own enthrocentric perspective.

[kenth]

Our village won't exist in 50 years. Our govt gives them just enough to keep them dying from booze, and refuses to close white run package stores no matter how much the village leadership begs them to be shut down. Almost like govt sponsered genocide.

If not outright sponsored, which I believe to be the case in some areas, it's at the very least government authorized in an indirect manner, by the government looking the other way.

I'll give you all an example of how fair Indians can be treated by the federal government. My mother is a full blooded Choctaw (the level of blood classification is another rant for another day), whose mother and father both were enrolled with the Dawes commission. What the Dawes commission amounted to was to "give" the Choctaws some land and pseudo-citizenship in return for their abandonment of official tribal lands, so that said land could be used by whites. The reason I put the word give in quotes is because the federal government wasn't going to actually allow Indians to prosper from their lands.

These lands were titled to the individual Indians, but kept under federal control through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It is held in a trust, from which each owner must receive authorization from the BIA in order to do anything on their land. My mother's mother, my grandmother, at the end of her life held 120 acres in southeastern Oklahoma. This was passed to her three children, my mother, uncle and an aunt. Since it is in trust, it was not divided, as the BIA goes out of its way to prevent any subdivision.

To touch on that subject for a moment, I've sat in with my mother the few times she attempted to gain some control over her portion of the land; attempting to get it divided, lease negotiations, etc. The BIA officer every time stalled the process sometimes through deception; i.e. lost paperwork, not returning calls, etc. to outright discouragement of the process. The BIA leased the land as my mother and her siblings were not allowed to do so. These leases went to very low bids, at times to friends of BIA workers who found a way to get a great deal. I recall one five year lease, about ten years ago, going to a local cattle rancher for 120 dollars a year - for the full 120 acres. The BIA would approve these leases regardless of my mother's protests.

The five "civilized" tribes have some special rules with the federal government. One of them is the Stigler Act. Back to my mother's land, one of my cousins, who does not hold an interest in the land, was able to secure a small loan with said land as collateral. This was a three thousand dollar loan or so upon which my cousins then proceeded to default. At default, the courts are in the process of taking the land. Now, my mother knew nothing of this loan, she was only notified of the entire process when the courts sent her a letter informing her that her land was being taken. The reason this is possible is that the Stigler Act allows the five "civ" tribes to be treated differently. It treats all heirs to trust lands as one entity, instead of a number of individuals. In effect, one is considered to have the rights of merely a fraction of regular U.S. citizens. Since my mother had two siblings, of which they had passed leaving a total of six heirs, my mother accounted for only 1/7 of a citizen even though she is an individual who held 1/3 of the interest in the land.

Some people think back to a time when black people were only considered as having 3/5ths of the citizenship of white Americans. We have some today who are treated by the federal government as far less than that.

These threads evoke the worst of the stereotype slinging from a few here on FR. Most get upset and angry over casinos, assume we all are on the government dole, that we are all drunks and worship nature as typified by hollywood. It's odd that so many blame the Indians for the reservation system, and state the idea that they should be moved off of them. Yet they obviously hold those same Indians with disdain. Not surprisingly, this is the exact same attitude that the federal government holds today. It keeps in place standards that works to prevent Indians from prospering while publicly stating the opposite.

[Eska]

Hope you don't think I was stereotyping, I live in a rural community 100 Whites, 28 Indians, and I'm the first to say Natives better than white people.

Indians in Alaska have just lost about everything they started with and process continues. I have one friend that says you all white people are all the same, you want to put everything in a big pile and call it your own and there's a bit of truth to that, called success. Difference of cultures.

Up here, 20 years back, whites would buy 40 acres for a case of whiskey, subdivide and make a killing. Now, Tanana Chiefs (corp) has veto power on all sales, protecting their members from people with no scruples when it comes to money. They make sure native owner gets fair market value. In many villages, no natives ever sell the land. Just how it is. They realize that's all that will keep their village culture intact.

This Summer, the feds down Yukon Charlie National Preserve, hauled all the natives downriver 100 miles for a dedication of log cabin. Feds renamed cabin after one of local's Uncles. Made Indians feel real important, gave em a boat ride. Feds should have gave entire park back to tribe. That will never occur. The Park was the spiritual center for the Han Athabaskan tribe. They lived there until early 50's when kids were removed and sent off to Indian schools, then parents moved to white community up river.

The crazy part is the Indians would run the park better for wildlife, ect. Much better caretakers than govt, but you have to see it first hand by living in a village for a while. Feds have no business controlling huge swaths of originally native lands, Just waiting for the local indians to die out as a people.

I could go on forever from what I have seen in villages, they have enough problems to deal with and they will deal with them in their own manner. All I know for sure is that they have gotten a bad deal and unless you have lived around them; you won't ever realize how true this fact really is.

[kenth]

Oh no, I didn't think you were stereotyping. But it happens all too often on these threads by those who aren't or don't know us. The various tribes are different, but they all share the same basic problems of adaptation. A lot of that problem comes from within, but just as much comes from the outside world not being accepting.

You just had me thinking and wanting to post a bit more on this thread.

[MinorityRepublican]

Congress has already banned internet gambling. However, if the operations are moved to an Indian Reservation, would that be legal?

[fish hawk]

I, being an American Indian, just want to say that your post if the first and best that I have ever read about those nasty "Indians". You seem to have a handle on why they were put on reservations in the first place. It was to develop the land and industry to help make them free from government babysitting. Now they have the casinos and are building their own schools and hospitals and roads etc. Not only that but in Calif. (I don't know about other states) The rich Casino tribes have to contribute money to a fund for the poor tribes that don't have that sort of income. My tribe receives thousands of dollars each year from other Casino tribes. We have no casino.

Lastly let me say to those who are really against Indian Casinos, they are making 99.9% of their money from white people. Want to get rid of Indian Casinos? Don't go there and lose your money.

[fish hawk]

So it's the Indians fault that "grandmas" are blowing their SS checks at Casinos???? Sounds very Liberal to me. Blame others for your own shortcomings.

[fish hawk]

You have a very good outlook and sensitive insight to the Indian way of life. They are what they are and although they have lots of problems, make one a friend and you have a true friend for life. My tribe pretty much has the same problems but my immediate family hardly drinks at all. I've seen what you have seen though in my lifetime. I have been here in Hawaii now for over thirty years and the Hawaiian people are not that much different from Indians. They are the gentlest and nicest people you would ever want to meet and yet there are some that absolutely hate white people. I get along great with them, I think because of my Indian background and understanding.