Time For Feds To Recognize The Harm Of Casino Tribes
Tom Condon

February 8 2004

Let's see. The last full-blooded Schaghticoke was buried on the reservation in Kent in 1913. By 1926, the state was referring to the tribe as a "remnant." There are huge, decades-long gaps in the tribe's leadership and continuity as a political community.

Like most or all of the other tribes in Connecticut, the Schaghticokes are a reconstituted tribe. Such groups are not supposed to receive federal recognition.

Nonetheless, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs reversed an earlier finding and granted recognition and "government-to-government relationship" to the Schaghticokes. This is absurd, it is wrong and it must be stopped.

I don't care in the least if someone finds solace in their ancestry, and wishes to explore and embrace it. I know third- or fourth-generation Irish who've learned the history and studied the Irish language. Whatever gets you through the night. But some degree of Native American ancestry, by itself, shouldn't be a ticket to a monetary fortune and an exemption from U.S. laws and taxes.

Make no mistake, this is all about big wampum. If these tribal remnants can win federal recognition, they get to open casinos. So big investors such as Donald Trump get behind the tribes. They buy expensive lobbyists, who pressure the political appointees at the BIA. Voila, federal recognition.

This is exactly how the last recognition fiasco in Connecticut played out, involving the Eastern Pequots and Paucatuck Eastern Pequots.

The BIA's research staff found that the two tribes failed to meet two key criteria for tribal status: continuous existence as a community and continuous political governance. There was good reason for such findings. Research indicated that by 1850, most of the Easterns had migrated to Wisconsin to reside with another tribe. Researchers also questioned whether the leaders of the Eastern tribe in the early part of the 20th century actually were Eastern Pequots.

But, the two factions had big money behind them; Trump on one side, golf course developer David Rosow and multimillionaire yachtsman William Koch on the other. They hired powerful Republican lobbyist Ron Kaufman, brother-in-law of White House chief-of-staff Andrew Card, and paid him a half-million bucks. It was money well spent.

The BIA reversed its staff's finding, merged the two factions into one "historical Pequot tribe" and granted it recognition in 2002. Casino plans are moving ahead. This is strikingly similar to what happened with the Schaghticokes. It is a lead pipe cinch that there's some major Washington influence peddler on the Schaghticoke payroll.

There's little doubt that with enough money, the East Hartford Moose Club could gain federal recognition.

This is insane. The people of Connecticut don't want more casinos, and ought to have a voice in this. Apparently we don't.

There's a feeling in Washington that things are so far out of hand that nothing can be done. "There's nothing we can do in Congress," Rep. Christopher Shays said a week ago, because Western states support the status quo.

Indeed, in 2002 Sens. Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman tried for a moratorium on the recognition process, which they called inconsistent and political. They got trounced in the Senate by an 80-15 vote.

It's important to keep trying. Joe now has a little more time on his hands. Perhaps the answer is to do something the Western tribes would support. Jeff Benedict, head of Connecticut Alliance Against Casino Expansion, suggests amending the Indian Gaming Act to say that it only applies to tribes already recognized, not those in the pipeline or in the appellate process.

The wisdom of this is two-fold. There'd be no reason for casino investors to back new applicants, which would lessen the odds of more phony-baloney tribes being recognized. And it would help the self-sustaining tribal communities for whom the law was intended -- the long-recognized Navajo, Hopi, Sioux and others -- by limiting competition.

"The tribes that deserve it should have it," Benedict said.

Having done that, there'd be a chance to work on the recognition process, which Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has proposed should be taken away from the BIA and given to a new nonpartisan agency.

Blumenthal, the only state official who has understood the serious implications of this problem from the beginning, plans to fight new casinos in court, on the basis that we've closed the Las Vegas Nights loophole and no longer allow them. Wish him well, there are more tribes you never heard of out there, waiting to cash in.

Erratum -- The former MetroHartford Regional Economic Alliance is now simply the MetroHartford Alliance, something you wouldn't have learned from reading last week's column.

Tom Condon is the editor of Place.

Copyright 2004, Hartford Courant