wfn.org | Bureau's role in spread of Indian casinos questioned

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

May 26, 2000     News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202)
546-8722·Washington     10-21-34-71B{252}

By Gretchen Hakola*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - People from five states came to the nation's capital May
24 to ask Congress to intercede with the U.S. Department of the Interior
because, they say, the department's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is doing
an end run around state laws, allowing tribal casinos to proliferate
unchecked.

The National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion organized the trip and
held a press conference during the visits to Capitol Hill.

The Rev. Tom Grey, a United Methodist who heads the coalition, compared the
BIA's recent fast tracking of casinos to the fires set by the Department of
Interior in Los Alamos, N.M., which destroyed hundreds of homes. 

"Is this a controlled burn?" Grey asked. A hundred tribes are awaiting BIA
recognition, and the bureau has promised to expedite their recognition
without investigating the legitimacy of their claims, he said, and without
regard to state or local laws about gaming. BIA administers nearly 44
million acres of tribally owned land, more than 10 million acres of
individually owned land, and 417,224 acres of federally owned land held in
trust status. 

The citizens from Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Rhode Island and Wisconsin are
asking their U.S. representatives to put a moratorium on the BIA's power to
grant tribes federal recognition and the right to operate casinos. The
coalition cites what it views as the agency's disregard for laws spelled out
in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. 

According to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt
has declared
that he has the authority to enter into compacts with tribes over the laws
of the states. Sessions called the bureau's actions "a major assault on the
public will to contain public gambling." The national governors' association
and the state attorneys general are calling for a moratorium on the BIA as
well, Sessions said.

In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the rights of a state to invoke
immunity against lawsuits from tribes. Tribal representatives believe this
decision debilitates the Indian gaming act, because if a state will not sign
a compact permitting gambling on tribal lands, the tribes have no ability to
appeal. Governors believe that if state law does not permit Class III
gambling, then a governor cannot be forced to sign a compact with tribes
permitting such gambling. Babbitt issued a rule, effective May 12, granting
himself the right to intervene in cases in which a tribe and state cannot
reach a compact. 

Four Michigan tribes recently recognized by the BIA have no valid compacts
so they have no right to place land in trust for gaming, according to a
legal brief prepared by William Fulkerson, an attorney hired by Taxpayers
Against Michigan Casinos of New Buffalo, Mich. "In the absence of a valid
compact, the gambling laws of the state of Michigan are applicable to tribal
lands as a matter of federal law. Yet, two tribal casinos are open and
operating without a valid compact, (and) the BIA does nothing."

"Apparently, the BIA is an agency run wild," said Marcia Heirman, president
of Citizens Exposing Truth about Casinos of Battle Creek, Mich. "When I went
to meet with Gov. John Engler, he explained how powerless he feels against
tribal gambling expansion."

Grey said that every elected official claims to oppose increasing tribal
casinos but the money generated by the gambling frenzy is intoxicating.
"Both (political) parties have been equal opportunity pigs at the gambling
trough," he said, adding that elected leaders will be held accountable this
election year. 

The group had "a very successful" meeting May 25 with Kevin Gover, assistant
secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior. Grey said
Gover was receptive to their concerns. 

"This was an opening round," Grey said. "We are not going to get picked off,
town by town or state by state."

The United Methodist Church's Social Principles, contained in the Book of
Discipline, call gambling "a menace to society, deadly to the best interests
of moral, social, economic, and spiritual life, and destructive of good
government. As an act of faith and concern, Christians should abstain from
gambling and should strive to minister to those victimized by the practice.
... The Church should promote standards and personal lifestyles that would
make unnecessary and undesirable the resort to commercial gambling --
including public lotteries as a recreation, as an escape, or as a means of
producing public revenue or funds for support of charities or government."
# # #
* Hakola is the program director of communications at the United Methodist
Board of Church and Society.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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