More At Stake Than Gambling

A proposition before the voters of Washington state has a variety of implications for the Indian tribes in the state. Initiative 671 could work in favor of some tribes and to the detriment of others.

The initiative must be approved by 60 percent of the voters in the Nov. 5 election.

If the Colville and Spokane tribes of Eastern Washington vote for it, they will be trampling on their own objectives of sovereignty.

These two tribes have stood up to the state government and built casinos that are now in full operation, without signing compacts.

Initiative 671 would do more harm to the Colville and Spokane tribes than good. For one thing, the initiative calls for all of the tribes in Washington to sign modified gaming agreements with the state. It limits tribes to one casino and 295 slot machines during the first year of the agreement. It also requires that 15 percent of all casino profits go to county and state public programs.

Those tribes that have already signed compacts with the state would benefit, to a degree, from this initiative should it be voted into law. To begin with, these tribes do not currently have slot machines. But are these tribes willing to give away so much in other areas to be given the ominous opportunity to install slot machines?

The Indian nations of Washington must never surrender their inherent right to decide for themselves what is best for their people. They must never allow a foreign government (the state) to infringe upon their status as a sovereign people. When the Indian nations of Washington were barely surviving as the poorest of the poor, where was the state government?

Was the state providing houses, jobs and other benefits to the Indian people of the Northwest? Since the tribes took the bull by the horns and constructed casinos, the profits are giving them the financial stability to thumb their collective noses at a state government that was totally complacent about Indian people in the past.

What does the state of Washington have to fear? An article in The Spokesman-Review took a not-so-objective look at these fears in an article published on Oct. 6. The article begins on a negative note: “The illegal gambling devices arrive in the dark, concealed in trucks bound for Indian lands in Eastern Washington. Almost 2,000 slot machines have been smuggled to two reservations near Spokane during the past three years.”

First of all, the slot machines are not illegal on the sovereign lands of the Spokane and Colville nations. The state of Washington has no right to prevent these two nations from equipping the businesses on their sovereign lands with the machinery required to help bring an end to poverty and welfare.

The article continues: “Industry experts speculate slot machines on the two reservations swallow about $100,000 a day, or more than $36 million a year. Some suspect the take is at least twice that much.”

Who are these “industry experts” making such irresponsible assertions? And who are these other mysterious individuals who suspect “the take is at least twice that much”? If there are specific individuals or groups so concerned, name them. Do not let them hide behind anonymity.

Why are these nameless people so concerned about the profits being made by the casinos owned by these two tribes? Why is it any business of theirs?

In 1988, two very concerned tribal leaders, Roger Jourdain of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa and Wendell Chino of the Mescalero Apache, tried to warn all of the Indian nations that the National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was illegal. They were particularly concerned about the clause that gave state governments jurisdiction where they had none.

It is not the fault of any Indian tribe that there is such a hodgepodge of laws and silly regulations when it comes to regulating Indian gaming. The National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act should never have become law until every tribe interested in gaming had an opportunity for input. The law was written loosely and is still on shaky ground because the state governments were in such a hurry to get it passed.

The Spokesman-Review article on the Mill Bay Casino continues: “The casino manager and two employees explain that they aren’t allowed to answer questions about profits from the 160-slot casino.” The writer of this article should go to the JC Penney store in Spokane and ask the manager and two employees how much money that business is making. I suspect he would probably get the same answer he got from the casino manager at Mill Bay Casino. It is no one’s business except the tribal council leaders of these two reservations.

Whether the people of Washington vote for or against Initiative 671 is moot. If it passes, it will benefit some tribes, but it is sure to be challenged in a court of law by the Colville and Spokane nations. If it fails, other tribes in Washington will probably follow the example of the Colville and Spokane tribes.

In other words, there appears to be many a legal battle ahead for the Indian nations of Washington and the state government. Most of this could have been avoided if the Indian tribes would have had major input into the National Gaming Regulatory Act.

But I ask once more: What does the state of Washington have to fear from Indian gaming? The answer should be: absolutely nothing.

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