Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D., Tim Giago Column Story-Date: 11:47 a.m. PST Sunday , August 31, 1997 Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D., Tim Giago Column BY TIM GIAGO, INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY, RAPID CITY, S.D. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.--Sept. 1--STATES NEED TO PUT ASIDE PETTY POLITICS: The tribes of New Mexico, the New Mexico state legislature, and those opposed and those for Indians awaited with bated breath for U. S. Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, to render his decision upon the legality or illegality of the compacts signed between 10 Indian tribes and the state government a few short weeks ago. Fifteen tribes have actually signed compacts but five came on after the first 10. In true bureaucratic fashion, Secretary Babbitt, carried on the traditions of countless Interior Secretaries before him, and sat calmly upon his hands and did nothing. Sec. Babbitt did have some concerns. His primary one being the demands by the state to receive large payments from the tribes for the opportunity of having a casino. The state is asking for a 16 percent ``revenue-sharing and regulatory fee'' from the Indian nations of New Mexico. This is in clear defiance of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 which specifically forbids states from leveraging large payments from the tribes as a compromise to operate a casino upon their own sovereign lands. The act itself reads that the states cannot ``impose any tax, fee, charge or other assessment upon an Indian tribe.'' The leaders of all 10 tribes that signed the compacts knew this to be the law before they signed the compacts offered by the state legislators demanding the 16 percent extortion fee. Upon the advice of their too often wimpy lawyers, they signed these compacts that severely challenged their own sovereignty. In a way, there is really very little else that Sec. Babbitt could have done under the circumstances. If he challenged the legality of the compacts through his office, the compacts could have been effectively negated, making the issue of legalized gaming on Indian lands in New Mexico moot. The sponsor of the legislation to tax the Indian tribes was Rep. Jerry Sandel, D Farmington, the chairman of the state House Taxation and Revenue Committee. I find this to be quite ironic since Farmington has long been the location of some of the most racist actions against Indian people in the state of New Mexico. It was in Farmington that several high school students took intoxicated Navajo men out to the hills and beat them to death with stones. Although three Navajo men were brutally murdered in this fashion, the students, all minors under the law, served but a short time in reform school and are now free as birds. These deaths occurred in the early 1980s. Rep. Sandel should be looking for ways to atone for these violent actions instead of trying to rub salt into the wounds of the Indian people. The tribes can refuse to pay the state charges and continue their legal battles to get it settled, they can pay the 16 percent without further debate, they can meet with the legislative body and attempt to negotiate more favorable conditions, or they can put money into an escrow account equal to the amount called for by the compacts and then pursue additional legal action. Currently, the Acoma, Isleta, Pojoaque, San Juan, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Tesuque, and Taos pueblos operate casinos in New Mexico along with the Mescalero and Jicarilla Apache Tribes. The Laguna, Santa Clara, Picuris and Nambe pueblos have signed compacts but have not built casinos as yet. Why has the state of New Mexico scratched for every advantage in negotiating with the Indian Nations of New Mexico in their efforts to become more self-sufficient and to drastically improve their economic condition? Santa Fe Democrat Max Coll believes the tribes will simply refuse to pay the extortion fee demanded by the state. Mr. Coll voted against the Indian gaming bill. He believes the tribes will simply say they do not have to pay and, as he put it, ``go on spinning that wheel of fortune.'' When the Indian tribes of New Mexico were the poorest of the poor, when they were struggling to survive as a people, where was Mr. Coll then? He didn't give one hoot for the poverty stricken tribes back then and now that they are lifting themselves up by their very boot straps, why is he so dead set against seeing them succeed? I suggest that the New Mexico lawmakers get their petty politics out of the faces of the Indian people of New Mexico. They didn't give a damn ten years ago so why are they interfering in the sovereign rights of the tribes now? The Pueblo Indians were here thousands of years before there was such a thing as New Mexico and all they have ever asked of the state is to leave them alone to live their lives in peace and harmony. Just back off and quit holding the tribes down. Let them succeed. ----- Visit Indian Country Today on the World Wide Web at http://www.indiancountry.com/ ----- (c) 1997, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. ------------------------------------------------------------