Casino causes tensions among US tribes

29.03.2023 - 15:24

A dispute is escalating between two American Indian tribes over land south of Boston. There, 1 of them tries to develop a casino and another says it's their territory.

The Mattakeeset Massachusetts people say they are the legal heritor to Taunton territory allotted by the federals to the Mashpee Wampanoag people. The latter plans to put up a recreational complex with a hotel plus a gambling room.

The Mattakeesets want the Mashpees and local and state authorities to recognize their right to the territory. They believe that colonial-era documents acknowledge their rights.

"They flagrantly misled the whole country by saying this land belongs to them," said Lary Fisher, the chief. He has been striving to revive the Mattakeeset tribe since 2014. " It belongs to us, the Mattakeesets."

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe traces its ancestors to Indians who shared their autumn harvest with early settlers 400 years ago. They presume that Fisher's people is only a small block inside the Wampanoag peoples who were lived in Massachusetts for thousands of years.

The Mattakeeset tribe currently has a few hundred members, according to Fisher, but no federal recognition or land. But the Mashpee people were federally recognized in 2007, and now have about 3,000 members.

"Larry is well-meaning, but he's perplexed," said Steven Peters, a delegate for the Mashpee tribe. He ensures that both tribes should be one, the heir of Wampanoags.

The dispute is the fresh setback in Mashpee's long and difficult crusade for getting the lands. And also the profitable rights to build a tax-exempt property on them.

The Cape Cod-based tribe received a reservation of more than 120 hectares (300 acres) in the final period of Barack Obama's administration in 2016. Still, the Trump team sought to revoke the land. About that, the tribe said it was a dangerous precedent. In the summer, a federal judge overturned Trump's move.

Here, we might recall why we have casinos on Indian territories, and why government gave Native Americans such rights profitable as online casinos £5 deposit not on GamStop.

History of Native American casinos

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan's government decided to compensate native tribes for the appropriation of their best territories in the 19th century. It promoted a policy that encouraged big business gambling on Indian reservations, which barely managed to survive.

Casinos on reservations cause discord among tribes. Some believe they encourage prostitution and crime.

Thanks to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, Native tribes could operate all types of gambling establishments, a lucrative business because tribes do not pay taxes on gambling. In 2006, the various tribes had 350 casinos in operation, earning some 20 billion euros annually, which allowed Indian per capita income to soar by 27 per cent.

To reduce poverty rates among the Indian population, federal law has decreed that at least 60 per cent of casino profits must go to projects that improve living conditions in communities. But Indian clan lawyers use trickery to get around these laws. Of the 560 Indian tribes in the United States, 224 have operated gambling and gaming establishments.

The largest casino in the country is Foxwoods, owned by the Mashantucket Pequot tribe in Connecticut. In addition, the Cahuillas own the Morongo casino in Palm Springs, California, with annual revenue of about 10 billion euros.

According to data from the National Indian Gaming Commission, turnover in 2006 was double five years ago, in 2001. Some critics point out that casinos have brought about cultural changes and the emergence of a new elite that is causing discord among the more orthodox tribes. In addition, they criticise what is going on around the casinos, such as prostitution, rising alcoholism and gangs.

Others recognise that the gambling business alleviates unemployment among the native population, which years ago reached unacceptable levels. Moreover, they argue that casinos’ licensing is a way to compensate for the land plundering they suffered in the past. They add that gambling has promoted tourism, which has increased the number of hotels, restaurants, shops and malls.

The Onondag Indians reject casinos because their laws prohibit gambling and prostitution. But they claim from New York State their right to protect and visit the sacred sites of their ancestors.

A tribe descended from the Mohicans and led by Chief Golden Eagle claimed ownership of Liberty and Ellis Islands, located off New York City, in 1997 in Albany court. The petition was denied.