Successful Indian casinos could hurt other tribes, Hopi leader says
Story-Date: 03:50 a.m. PST Friday   , July 31, 1998

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Successful Indian casinos could hurt other tribes, Hopi leader says


By Matt Kelley
Associated Press Writer


TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- American Indian tribes that do not have casinos could
be hurt by the perception that all Indians now are rich from casino
proceeds, the chairman of the Hopi Tribe says.

The handful of tribes with successful casinos reinforce the myth of the
rich Indian, said Hopi tribal Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr.

That perception gives Congress "new justifications for its historic lack of
enthusiasm for funding its trust responsibilities to the Indian people of
this country," said Taylor, whose tribe has rejected casinos because
gambling conflicts with traditional Hopi beliefs.

"While tribal gaming successes have provided no direct tangible benefits to
non-gaming tribes, the non-gaming tribes nevertheless bear the brunt of the
congressional backlash and unfavorable public perception," Taylor told the
National Gambling Impact Study Commission on Thursday.

The commission, created by Congress to study the effects of legalized
gambling in the United States, met in Tempe to hear testimony on Indian
gambling throughout the country.

Leaders of tribes with casinos said Taylor raised an important issue -- one
they hoped to minimize by working to educate Congress and the public about
Indian tribes and Indian gambling. Only 145 of the more than 500 tribes in
the United States have gambling compacts with states, for example.

"We try to educate people that all tribes are unique and you can't judge us
as a whole," Cocopah Tribe Vice-chairman Dale Phillips said in an interview
after Taylor's remarks. "We are all different. Just like when we see a
white person, we don't say they're all the same."

Phillips and leaders of other tribes with casinos also touted the positive
effect gambling operations have had on their tribes. Unemployment has been
nearly wiped out on some Arizona reservations because of casinos, and
proceeds have built schools and hospitals, paved roads and funded job
training and economic development, tribal leaders said.

"We are no longer dependent on the government to provide for our people,"
said Vivian Burdette, chairwoman of the Tonto Apache Tribe in Payson. "Our
dream of self-sufficiency is becoming a reality."

State government officials complained that the 1988 federal Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act does not give enough power to states in negotiating casino
agreements and regulating tribal gambling operations. The law requires
tribes to sign compacts with states before they can offer most forms of Las
Vegas-style casino gambling on their reservations.

States have faced "endless litigation by the tribes" over casino
negotiations, said Tom Gede of the California state attorney general's
office. The federal law stacks the deck in favor of the tribes, Gede said.

Tribes, on the other hand, complain that the federal law leaves them little
recourse when casino negotiations break down. A U.S. Supreme Court decision
says tribes cannot sue states for allegedly negotiating in bad faith, and
Congress has temporarily blocked the Interior Department from approving
reservation casinos without state consent.

Meanwhile, several people who struggled with compulsive gambling urged the
panel to recommend better funding for treatment.

"A gambler in pursuit of the big win can split his personality," said Gwen
Bjornson of Phoenix, who said she divorced her husband two years ago
because of his gambling problem. "He can steal, he can lie, because he's
out there for the big win."

Don Hulen, executive director of the Arizona Council on Compulsive
Gambling, said the state's Indian tribes have been very supportive of
problem gambling treatment programs -- more so than the state of Arizona.

"The Native Americans, they get the picture and they're taking care of the
problem," Hulen said.

Jacob Coin, a Hopi tribal member who heads the National Indian Gaming
Association, told the commission to "look beyond the shortsighted view of
some who hold that gaming is simply immoral.

"Poverty is immoral. Hunger is immoral. Joblessness is immoral. Disease is
immoral," Coin said in prepared testimony for the panel. "Gaming is a means
for Indian nations to end the immoralities heaped upon them throughout 225
years of history."

That argument did not sit well with commission member James Dobson, founder
of the conservative group Focus on the Family and an opponent of gambling
on moral grounds.

"Gambling is not the solution to poverty in this country, it is the
problem, or at least part of the problem," Dobson said.



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