Posted at 3:24 a.m. PST Monday, March 24, 1997 3,000 Native Americans From More Than 15 American Indian Tribes to Gather Today at 10:00 A.M. at U.S. District Courthouse in Support of Tribal Gaming; Tribal Leaders to be Served with Summons; Tribes Call for Negotiation Not Litigation; U.S. Supreme Court Considering Tribal Gaming Case LOS ANGELES, March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Starting in the early dawn of Monday morning, thousands of American Indians from reservations like Tule River in the north, as far south as Sycuan and as far east as Torres-Martinez will be boarding more than 65 buses that will take them to the steps of the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. They are coming to show their support for the nine Southern California tribes who have been named in lawsuits by the Central District U.S. Attorney Nora Manella. Also coming are the nine tribal leaders who will be served with the formal summons for legal action against their tribes for operation of uncompacted gaining activities. As the buses with tribal members and their families make their way to the courthouse, letters from a diverse cross-section of Americans from U.S. Senators, the House of Representatives, state lawmakers, business leaders and ordinary working people continue to arrive at the U.S. Justice Department, the Department of the Interior, House and Senate offices and at the White House. `We are coming to ask for justice,` said Lynn LeRoy, chairwoman for a coalition of Indian tribes in Southern California called the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations. The group, formed in 1994, is made up of approximately a dozen tribes presently operating gaming facilities. Together, the TASIN tribes represent nearly 5,000 jobs. Of California's 106 Indian tribes, about 30 have utilized gaming as an economic development tool that presently employs more than 15,000 and generates more than $450 million in jobs, taxes and goods and services back into the state's economy. Tribal members will convene on the steps of the U.S. District Courthouse, Main Street side for a 10:00 a.m. press conference in support of tribal government gaming. It will begin with ancient Indian songs, blessings of the tribal leaders and testimonials. Tribal chairpersons for the nine tribes named in the lawsuits -- Agua Caliente, Cabazon, Cahuilla, Morongo, Pechanga, San Manuel, Santa Ynez, Soboba, Twenty-Nine Palms -- will leave the press conference to formally accept service of the summons and lawsuit as a group at 11:00 a.m. The tribal leaders will then return to address supporters. At noon they will conclude and walk one block west to the park located on the First Street side of City Hall for a lunch and rally. Organizers expect more than 3,000 tribal members to be in attendance for the press conference and lunch/rally in City Hall park. In recent days, Senators Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Senator Barbara Boxer, Congressmen Sonny Bono, Congressman Jerry Lewis, Congressman George Brown and Congressman George Miller have sent letters to the Justice Department and the Department of the Interior protesting the action by California U.S. Attorneys. In a separate statement condemning the filing of the lawsuits, Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante called on U.S. Attorney Janet Reno to rescind the action and allow current tribal-state negotiations to move forward without threat of litigation. Support has continued to grow as last Friday more than 50 California State Assembly members, both Democrat and Republican lawmakers, sent a letter to Attorney General Reno calling for `negotiations between the state and Indian tribes be allowed to continue without undue pressure from federal authorities.` `History shows that California's first citizens were hunted down and the state paid bounty for their bodies. Their land and natural resources were taken from them. California's Indians have been made the poorest of the poor and now they want to make us criminals for the crime of free enterprise and getting off welfare with gaming,` said TASIN chairwoman Lynn LeRoy. The nine tribes were sued last Monday by the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles federal court to close down the tribes' electronic gaming devices. `Why then would U.S. Attorneys choose this time, right when tribal-state compact negotiations are at such a crucial point, to issue such arbitrary deadlines?` said LeRoy. `Ironically, at the same time this past Monday that the U.S. Attorney was filing another round of litigation that would destroy the livelihood of tribal members, the United States Supreme Court was asking the Justice Department for their view on the California tribes' petition to review Rumsey v. Wilson.` `Tribal governments who presently offer electronic gaming devices haven't even had the opportunity to negotiate their own compacts. In the end, it will be the people who can least afford it who will pay the price by losing their jobs not to mention the loss of services and programs funded by tribal government gaming,` said LeRoy. `Which part of the gaming industry is federal law enforcement making a big deal out of?` asked LeRoy. `Is it the 50 percent that Las Vegas currently owns? Or is it the state lotteries who have the other 45 percent? No, it's the five percent the Indians use to support themselves. That adds up to economic genocide. The difference between a culture that survives and flourishes and one that suffers extinction is the ability to nurture a viable economy.` The nine tribes had declined 10 days ago to sign a proposed agreement with the U.S. Attorney concerning electronic gaming. `The U.S. Attorney contacted our tribal governments to advise us that if the state and the Pala Band do not reach agreement on a tribal-state compact for electronic gaming by March 31st that they would expect the gaming tribes to shut down their machines,` said LeRoy. `While we are continuing to try to work with the U.S. Attorney and wait for our opportunity to negotiate with the state, we cannot condemn our people to a return to taxpayer-funded dependency while compact negotiations proceed. We have been requesting a reasonable transition that will work for everyone.` `The tribes declined to sign the agreement issued by the U.S. Attorney as it immediately called for us to concede that our machines are illegal. That issue has not been resolved in the courts,` said TASIN chairwoman LeRoy. `Our members asked for meetings. What they got in response were lawsuits.` Late Friday, in a move that brought resolution to a similarly long and complex struggle on tribal gaming rights, the New Mexico state legislature voted approval for the states gaming compacts with tribes. `If Minnesota, Connecticut, New Mexico, Washington and 23 other states have been able to develop compacts that were win-wins for the people of those states as well as the tribes, why can't California?` asked LeRoy SOURCE Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations --------------------------------------------------------------------------------