TED Case Studies Number 734, 2004 by Jeff Jetton

Tourism Policy and Native Americans

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I. Identification

1. The Issue

Similar to other nations identified as ‘lesser developed’ or ‘Third World’, economic development initiatives in Native American nations have been typically limited to the quality and quantity of natural resources available for commercial exploitation. Mining, logging even the dumping of garbage have been often the only income generating options for many tribal communities. In this era of greater self-determination, after decades of battling government policies and external interests, tribes recognize the importance of controlling their own resources so that economic development is a means to an end in their ability to be self-sustaining while maintaining cultural integrity (D.H. Smith, 1994, p. 178)

In this light, many Indian nations have recognized tourism and gaming as an opportunity to diversify economic development strategies. Tribes with few natural resources or limited economic markets especially regard tourism as a viable, sustainable income opportunity for their communities. 

This case examines whether or not tourism is a viable industry for long-term sustainable economic growth within the sovereign Native American nations that reside within the borders of the United States.

2. Description

In 1967, the Economic Development Administration (EDA), established by the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 and a major agency in the federal government’s War on Poverty, created an Indian desk and made a major commitment to promote economic development projects on Indian reservations. EDA funds were directed toward infrastructure investments, industrial parks, and tourism facilities, among other projects. From 1966 to 1976 EDA spent more than $272 million in an effort to advance Indian economic development (Lew, 1998).

EDA administrators were under the impression that tourism offered some of the best prospects for new businesses on reservations, and they made a major effort to fund tourism projects, citing Indian Country’s physical environments and the availability of desirable recreational opportunities as key factors justifying their optimism. Yet a 1972 study funded by the Ford Foundation, titled The Gift That Hurt the Indians, said that most Indian tourism projects had been failures. The authors concluded that “the numbers of tourists being attracted were far short of the numbers needed for financially successful operations. The $67 million in federal funds spent for Indian tourism since 1967 had yielded projects running a total annual deficit in 1977 of $5.0 million, creating a continuing major drain on tribal as well as federal financial resources.”

Tribal tourism remained flat until tribal-run gambling ventures were facilitated by the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), which also reasserted the sovereignty of Indian nations. Gambling, which has been gaining acceptance in the United States as a form of destination tourism and entertainment since Las Vegas arose out of the desert in the middle of the last century, has been on a winning streak both in America, where about $440 billion was wagered in 1996, and in the European Community, where more that $50 billion changed hands in the same year. Not all tribes who could have chosen casino gambling as an economic development strategy have chosen to do so. The Navajos of Arizona and New Mexico voted in 1994 against bringing gambling to their reservation (see Substitute/Alternative policies).

Large revenues from gambling have exacerbated debates over the intersection of federal, state, and tribal rights and over the distribution of benefits from these new Indian resources.

3. Related Cases

4. Author and Date:

Jeffrey Patrick Jetton

The George Washington University

Master’s of Business Administration Program

II. Legal Clusters

5. Discourse and Status/Policy Issue

The legislative history of IGRA shows that Congress wanted tribal gaming revenue to benefit Indian tribes to the highest degree, by allowing tribes to realize objectives of economic self-sufficiency and Indian self-determination. Since IGRA, tribal gaming revenues have been invested consistent with Congress’ intent: into tribal governments, schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure. The statute even sets forth maximum fees that casino management companies may take for operating an Indian casino (see socio-economic impacts). The legislative intent of IGRA was to preserve gaming revenues for tribal use. Tribal-state revenue sharing agreements are therefore inconsistent with the purpose of the statute.

6. Forum and Scope/Existing Policy Framework

California vs. Cabazon

In 1987, the Supreme Court handed down the landmark decision of California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, which held that Indian tribes have the right to conduct gaming activities on reservations without being regulated by state or local authorities. (Lent, 2003)

Indian Gaming Regulatory Act

In response to the California v. Cabazon decision, Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in an effort to balance Indian autonomy in the gaming arena with state assertions of police power over tribal gaming. IGRA essentially served as a compromise by encouraging Indian gaming while giving the states some opportunity to regulate the conduct of casino-style tribal gaming activities.

Under IGRA, tribes are given the right to conduct gaming activities on Indian lands if the gaming does not violate the federal law and if it is conducted within a state that does not, as a matter of criminal law and public policy, prohibit gaming. The statute’s language incorporates the reasoning of the Cabazon decision by distinguishing civil-regulatory laws from criminal-prohibitory laws. When a state allows a gaming activity for any purpose by any person, organization or entity (state lotteries or church charity bingo for example) it does not, by law, consider that gaming to be contrary to public policy. In essence, a state may only ban Indian gaming if it bans gaming in all circumstances. Under IGRA, tribes must enter into a compact with a state to determine the extent of state involvement in the tribal gaming. The tribe could sue the state in federal court if the state either refused to negotiate a compact or did not negotiate in good faith (Lent, 2003).

Seminole v. Florida

The Seminole decision changed the rules governing tribal-state compacts by holding that the Eleventh Amendment immunizes states from suit by Indian tribes. The Court thereby invalidated the enforcement provisions of IGRA on the ground that the states’ sovereign immunity prevents a tribe from suing states for failure to negotiate a tribal state compact in good faith. Tribes now find themselves at the mercy of the states due to their inability to enforce the IGRA mandate of good-faith tribal-state compacting (Lent, 2003).

7. Decision Breadth/Stakeholders/Policy Actors

Before analyzing the role that tourism/gaming is playing in bringing about economic recovery of tribes, there must be an understanding of (a) the difficult concept of tribal existence and (b) the complex relationship between the stakeholders in tourism/gaming policy: tribes and the U.S. government, both federal and state.

Indians/Native Americans

Data from the 2000 U.S. Census, which shows a total population of 281,421,906, indicate the continuing transformation of race and ethnicity in America. For the first time in history, individuals could choose to self-identify as having more than one race. In 2000, there were a reported 2,475,956 self-identified Indians and Alaska Natives, a 26 percent increase since 1990, and representing roughly 0.9 percent of the total U.S. population. In addition, an additional 1.6 million people reported themselves as being indigenous and belonging to ‘at least one other race.’ “In sum, approximately 4.1 million people reported being ‘American Indian and Alaska Native.’ Russell Thornton, a Cherokee anthropologist, noted in his analysis of the 2000 Census data, American Indians have a racial mixture of 37 percent, far exceeding percentages for any other group (African Americans, for example, reported only about 5% mixed ancestry)” (Wilkins, 2002, p. 34).

Roughly 60% of all Indian People reside off of Indian reservations. In fact, about 56.2 percent of all Indian People reside in major metropolitan cities, as a result of assimilation policies of the 1950’s and 1960’s which relocated Indians to a number of western cities including Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Tribes

There is great variation in the population of individual tribes. The largest tribe is the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, with 369,035 members, while the smallest tribes have less than 100 members. The extension of federal recognition by the United States to a tribal nation is the formal diplomatic acknowledgement by the federal government of a tribe’s legal status as a sovereign nation. This is comparable to when the United States extended ‘recognition’ to the former republics of the Soviet Union after that state’s political disintegration.

Reservations

A reservation is an area of land-whether aboriginal or new-that has been reserved for an Indian tribe, band, village, or nation. Generally, the United States holds, in trust for the tribe, legal title to the reserved territory. The tribe in these instances holds a beneficial title to the lands, or, in other words, an exclusive right of occupancy.

“As of 1998, there were 314 reservations and other restricted and trust lands in the United States. These reserved lands are located in thirty-one states, mostly in the West. There are also twelve state-established reservations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, and Virginia. Despite the large number of federally recognized Alaska Native groups, there is only one reservation, the Annette Island Indian Reserve” (Wilkins, 2002, p. 38).

Presently, the Indian Country land base in the U.S., including Alaska, is approximately one hundred million acres: fifty-six million in the United States, forty-four million in Alaska. This constitutes roughly 4 percent of all lands in the United States. The land encompasses territory over which tribal governments and Alaska Native villages and corporations exercise varying amounts of governmental jurisdiction, and where state laws are generally inapplicable.

Federal and State Governments

Before the advent of gambling casinos, many tribal economies had become solely dependent on federal subsidies. From a federal perspective, gaming revenue provides an opportunity to decrease support for the tribes, and from 1997 to 1992 Bureau of Indian Affairs assistance to tribes for economic development decreased by two thirds. The states where Native American gaming is allowed have not proposed any viable source of alternate tribal revenue and jobs. For states, tribal gaming can represent a loss of potential and actual state revenue, while increasing costs.

8. Legal Standing/Legal Regulatory Framework/Suggested Policy Intervention

The adjudication of tribal gaming claims in state courts involves problems of fairness that result from competing tribal and state interests. Tribes have an economic interest in the growing source of income and independence that gaming operations provide. States, on the other hand, in addition to a general desire to regulate activities within their borders, want to avoid competition with their own state-sponsored gambling. State interests and tribal interests in tribal gaming issues are, therefore, very much at odds with one another (Lent, 2003).

Tribes who wish to enforce their gaming rights pursuant to IGRA can possibly seek alternatives to bringing suit in state court. One idea is for the federal government, as trustee for Native Americans, to sue states that demand revenue as part of a Class III compact. Seminole Tribe held that state’s sovereign immunity prevented it from being sued by an Indian tribe in federal court, but did not extend this immunity to suits by the federal government. “In Chemenheuvi Indian Tribe v. Wilson, for example, a district court held that the federal government has a mandatory duty to sue the states on behalf of an Indian tribe when the state refuses to negotiate a gaming compact under IGRA” (Lent, 2003, p. 473).

III. Policy Impacts

The Case of Foxwoods Resort and Casino

Armed with an increasingly sophisticated understanding of American social, economic and political processes, the leaders of the Pequot reservation in Connecticut (owners of the Foxwoods Resort and Casino) were able to head off a rapidly growing effort in Connecticut to legalize casinos run by non-Indians, which would have posed competition to Foxwoods and their tourism industry. In 1992 they negotiated an agreement (tribal-state compact) in which the state receives 25 percent of slot machine revenues in return for the Indian casinos’ right to own the machines. The state forfeits all slot royalties if it permits any non-Indian casinos to locate in Connecticut. By October 1993, Foxwoods had 3137 slot machines generating $1.625 million per day. The state received $113 million in 1993, $135 million in 1994 and $165 million in 1996 (D’Hauteserre, 1998).

Thanks to their gambling revenues, Pequot leaders can now use extensive tribal resources when they sit on the council. They have the ability to call in federal influence against state action. They also have presented a united political front. Economic development and political influence are clearly interrelated and reciprocal (D’Hauteserre, 1998).

10. Environmental

Oftentimes development is undertaken without any form of measurable impact study, which is one of the main problems with globalization, where people feel that corporations and governments do not take a step back and look at how what they do effects where they are. This literature sets a great example for future tourism development. That the U.S. government is conducting a study to measure the impact of a facet of tourism which may shape future policy is quite groundbreaking. One area that might benefit from further research not addressed in either article is the environmental impact that gaming has on reservations and surrounding communities. Running a large operation must create a tremendous amount of waste along with increased motor traffic and many other environmental factors. It would be interesting to examine what noticeable effect this has on the quality of life of the stakeholders.

 
Below is an example of an environmental impact survey that will take place before the development of a gaming/tourism project on a reservation in California:
 
United States Environmental Protection Agency
[Federal Register: February 12, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 29)]
 
NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING COMMISSION
 
Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and 
of a Scoping Meeting for the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria 
Casino and Hotel Project, Sonoma County, CA
 
AGENCY: National Indian Gaming Commission.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
SUMMARY: The notice advises the public that the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC), in cooperation with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), intends to gather information necessary for preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a proposed casino project to be located in Sonoma County, California. The purpose of the proposed action is to help address the 
socio-economic needs of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. Details of the proposed action and location are provided below in the Supplemental Information section. The scoping process will include notifying the general public and federal, state, local, and tribal agencies of the proposed action. This notice also announces a public scoping meeting that will be held for the proposed action. The purpose of scoping is to identify public and agency concerns, and alternatives to be considered in the EIS.
 
The proposed federal action is the approval of a gaming management contract between the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and SC Sonoma Management LLC. The approval of the gaming management contract would result in the development of a resort hotel, casino, and supporting facilities. The facility will be managed by SC Sonoma Management LLC on behalf of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, pursuant to the terms of a gaming management contract. The proposed development would take place on up to 450 acres (the project site) that will be taken into trust on behalf of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. The project site is located immediately west of the City of Rohnert Park in Sonoma County, and within one mile of U.S. Highway 101. Nearby land uses include agricultural uses such as livestock grazing and dairy operations, rural residential uses, a mobile home park, industrial and commercial development, and open 
space. In addition to the proposed action, a reasonable range of alternatives, including a no action alternative will be analyzed in the EIS.
 
The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria consists of approximately 999 members. It is governed by a tribal council, consisting of seven members, under a constitution that was passed by vote of the members on December 14, 2002, and approved by the Secretary of the Interior on December 23, 2002. The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria presently 
has no land in trust with the U.S. Government and is eligible to acquire land for reservation purposes to be placed in trust.

It is also important to put the environmental impact of Indian gaming/tourism policy into context and consider alternative economic development being undertaken by other reservations such as mining, logging, garbage dumping, and use this as a basis for comparative impact. Native Americans do not have the option of doing nothing with their resources, as their livelihood depends upon economic success. Therefore, it would seem that gaming and tourism present a much more environmentally friendly option when compared with the industries listed above.

11. Socio-Economic

In 1998, The Economics Resource Group submitted a report to Congress titled: American Indian Gaming Policy and Its Socio-Economic Effects: A Report to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. This study was conducted to measure the effects that gambling has had on the Native American population in the United States. The report outlines the history of U.S./Native American relations and U.S./Native American Policy, highlighting the more recent policy of Tribal self-determination. Self-determination in this article refers to Tribal initiative and exercise of control regarding primary operation of governmental duties and economic independence.

Since late in the nineteenth century, federal policy toward American Indian tribes has repeatedly vacillated between efforts to assimilate individual Indians and break up reservation communities and policies of federal support of various kinds for tribal communities and reservations. These divergent and often conflicting policy approaches have had at least one thing in common: until the late 1970s, all of them failed to alleviate the crushing poverty and abject social conditions on Indian lands.

The study by the Economics Resource Group led to a monumental conclusion: “This legacy of failed policies stands in stark contrast to the gains made more recently by tribes following the shift to a policy of tribal self-determination. In the mid-1970s the federal government, recognizing in practice the sovereignty tribes already enjoyed in law, began granting to Indian nations enhanced decision-making power over reservation affairs, more complete control over their governments, and more secure property rights to reservation assets. The result has been a dramatic increase in successful, sustained economic development efforts on reservations. In short, the policy of Indian self-determination has been a key to successful reservation development” (Economics Resource Group, 1998, p. 3).

Indian gaming is referred to in the text as an expression of this self-determination. The Supreme Court determined that Indian tribes have the exclusive right to regulate gaming activity on Indian lands if the gaming activity is not specifically prohibited by Federal law and is conducted within a State which does not, as a matter of criminal law and public policy, prohibit such gaming activity.

The study outlines the degree of socialism and socio-economic sustainability inherent in the IGRA (Indian Gaming Regulatory Act) that makes Indian gaming so progressive and different from non-reservation development. Under IGRA, tribes must solely own Indian casinos. If a tribe contracts with an operator to manage the casino, IGRA caps the fee at 30% of net revenue and the term at five years unless the Commission can be convinced the capital investment and income projections require a higher fee or longer term, in which case the maximum is 40% and seven years. In addition, the net revenues of the facility must be dedicated to the following purposes: to fund tribal government operations or programs; to provide for the general welfare of the Indian tribe and its members; to promote tribal economic development; to donate to charitable organizations; or to help fund operations of local government agencies (Economics Resource Group, p.3, 1998).

The Impact of Casino Gambling on Metropolitan Green Bay offers a look at the socio-economic effects of gambling in Wisconsin, additionally focusing on non-Indians and residents of the State of Wisconsin, rather than solely on the Tribes. The study highlights the Oneida Tribe’s turnaround from destitute reservation, stricken by poverty, to a developing nation, where income from casinos is plowed back into the community with a long-term strategy for economic development and Tribal self-determination.

The Tribe is the largest employer in the metropolitan Green Bay area, employing both Tribal members and non-Indians. Additionally, some of the profits are being plowed into further economic development opportunities that will not only benefit the Tribe, but also the community at large. Tribal welfare rates have been cut dramatically (Alesch, 1997).

The two studies have similar outlooks as far as the socio-economic impact of Indian gaming. Evidence is overwhelmingly positive as to the benefit to the Tribes who run gaming facilities. Federal regulation of gaming on reservation land has been enacted with the best interests of the quality of life of the Tribes, and the results have been astounding. Both studies address the problems of compulsive gambling, but are quick to point out that incidences are no more of a problem than in states such as New Jersey or Nevada, where gambling is legalized.

12. Cultural

A problem some tribes could face is the loss of cultural identity, which often accompanies economic success, but there is little concern on many reservations about this. Although each tribe has its own cultural traditions, the effort to obtain federal acknowledgement has brought the scattered tribes of the eastern United States together. By working on a common goal, they have developed a more broadly based sense of cultural identity. Mashantucket Pequot council members are not overly concerned with the ritualistic side of life, but are pragmatic leaders interested primarily in tribal survival. The Pequots are constructing a museum and Indian Research Center to correct the misconceptions and distortions of Pequot history and culture that exist today.

It would be unrealistic to have expectations of cultural policy impacts to take precedent over socio-economic impacts, but this has been the tendency of analysts looking at the situation from the outside. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs explains that there is a process that individuals and even societies move through that places importance on needs. Native American society has begun, in the past twenty years, to move its way up this hierarchy.

Abraham Maslow was a brilliant psychologist who developed a framework of human potential. He developed categories of various levels of need which drive a human being. When a lower and more pressing need has been satisfied the entity feels their motivation shift upwards to a new need at a higher level until the ultimate state of self-actualization is reached.

Maslow's idea is applicable not only to individual people but to social groups as well. Small organizations and groups of friends or teammates, couples, companies, schools and even whole societies (tribes) move up the hierarchy.

Needs are prepotent. A prepotent need is one that has the greatest influence over our actions. Everyone has a prepotent need, but that need will vary among individuals. A teenager may have a need to feel that he/she is accepted by a group. A heroin addict will need to satisfy his/her cravings for heroin to function normally in society, and will not worry about acceptance by other people. According to Maslow, when the deficiency needs are met:

At once other (and higher) needs emerge, and these, rather than physiological hungers, dominate the organism. And when these in turn are satisfied, again new (and still higher) needs emerge, and so on. As one desire is satisfied, another pops up to take its place.

1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.

2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.

3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.

4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.

5. Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

(From website http://web.utk.edu/~gwynne/maslow.HTM)

As Native Americans realize independence and economic development, they have begun to move up this hierarchy from meeting basic needs such as food and shelter to formalized systems of government and law and are starting to realize gains in family and relationship needs. Esteem needs and self-actualization needs are beginning to be met as other basic needs are met.

“Former Saginaw Chief Gail Jackson, 54, who is now health administrator of the tribe, said a steady job, along with her faith, allowed her to control her alcoholism. Alcohol had decimated her family, leading to the deaths of her mother, sister, and son. In the past, Native Americans embarrassed by their heritage tried to hide it. They took white names as they tried to blend in with the community. But more and more members are coming out of hiding. They’re learning, or relearning, their customs and language. Gambling means a lot more than putting Nike on their feet and Jeep Cherokees in their garages. It’s about being able to manage a $400-billion business and turn a sizable profit. Educational Assessment Program scores soared from the bottom quarter of the region’s schools in 1996 to among the top last year. And it’s about coming back to the reservation, tribes said. The returning American Indians are looking for jobs and finding their heritage. They’re deciding to stay. They feel like they’ve come home.”

13. Suggested Interventions

Tourism and gaming policy is a tangled web between the states, the tribes, and the Federal government. Policy can and should be win/win on all sides, yet the turbulent history of the relationship between all interested parties makes negotiation difficult. All stakeholders truly have a vested interest in realizing gaming/tourism as a recovery industry for tribes. The difficulty lies in untangling the web and portraying the clear picture of how tribal economic development benefits everyone. Studies such as the one delivered to Congress go along way in showing the actual gains and can clear up misconceptions. Policy intervention needs to be undertaken in the form of more literature, more analysis of the economic effect that gaming and tourism have on these communities and the stakeholders involved.

IV. Trade Clusters

14. Type of Measure

Tribal/State Gaming Compacts

15. Relation of Trade Measure to Environmental/Tourism Impact

a. Directly Related to Product: Massive tourism revenues into community developments.

b. Indirectly Related to Product: Improvement in Education, alleviation of poverty.

c. Not Related to Product:

d. Related to Process: Waste production, energy consumption, problem gaming.

16. Trade Product Identification/Trade and Services

Gaming sector of tourism industry; Lodging; Entertainment; Service; Transportation

17. Economic Data

The Indian gaming industry has skyrocketed since Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988. By the year 2000, gross revenues from Indian gaming exceeded $10.6 billion, up from approximately $100 million before the passage of IGRA, an increase of more that two thousand percent over twelve years.

American Indian casinos nationwide won $14.1 billion in 2002, handily topping the industry's total gross win in Nevada by 50 percent. The tribal casinos' win compared to Nevada casinos' $9.4 billion total win -- which was down 0.26 percent from the year before -- and was an increase of 11 percent over the $12.7 billion generated by tribal casinos in 2001. Despite the growing numbers for Indian casinos, experts said it was unclear whether the development poses a threat to Nevada's gaming industry.

18. Impact of Trade Restriction

The extraordinary expansion of the Indian Gaming industry has caused various disputes among tribal members, tribes, states, and the federal government. Specifically, the dispute over whether states can share in Indian gaming revenues via the tribal-state compacting process required by IGRA has become especially heated in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision on Seminole Tribe vs. Florida.

Pursuant to the Seminole Tribe decision, states are immune from suit by Indian tribes for failure to engage in the good faith negotiations for gaming compact required by IGRA. In effect, the decision invalidated portions of IGRA that enabled tribes to enforce their gaming rights; as a result, tribes have been left with little recourse when a state demands revenue from tribal gaming or refuses to negotiate over gaming rights. In the year immediately following the case, no state that had not previously had a gaming compact with an Indian tribe negotiated one. To date, only a small number of states have tribal gaming compacts that require revenue sharing. However, as compacts that predate Seminole Tribe begin to expire in other states, tribes wishing to renew their compacts will likely find states reticent to do so unless revenue sharing is a part of the new deal. Tribes negotiating with a state for the first time likely will be forced to share revenue as well (Lent, p. 467, 2003).

History shows that tribes have had very little success with economic development. By enforcing trade restrictions, trade partners (in this case the states) are inhibiting tribal self-sufficiency. “Seminole Tribe placed states and tribes in unequal bargaining positions vis-à-vis Class III gaming compacts. As a result, tribes now depend upon a state’s willingness to negotiate or renew gaming compacts. It stands to reason that fostering Indian reliance on the states is not a way to promote self-sufficiency or independence” (Lent, 2003, p. 468).

19. Industry Sector

Primary: Gaming- Since 1978 there has been tremendous growth within the ‘gaming/entertainment’ industry and there is competition and there has been (and will be) adaptation to the changing environments. Gambling has made the transformation for the general public for being a vice to a major (and growing) industry.

Secondary: Other tourism related industries including lodging, food and beverage and retail

20. Exporters and Importers

The tribes export gaming and tourism products to the States, while the States imports these products, competing with their own gambling products and those of other states.

V. Macro/Environment Clusters/Tourism Policy Clusters

VI. Other Factors

25. Culture

Suffice it to say, the amount of racial mixing acknowledged in the American Indian context is extreme when compared to that of other racial/ethnic groups. The Indian population, like that of the Jews and the Japanese Americans in Hawaii, is also one that experiences an extremely high level of intergroup marriage. Although intergroup married couples accounted for only 4 percent of all married couples in the United States in 1990, American Indians had a 53 percent intergroup marriage rate. Potentially, this figure could have severe cultural and political implications for indigenous nations.

The extraordinary high level of racial intermarriage for American Indians provides a good reason to expect that growing numbers of American Indians and their descendants will choose non-Indians for spouses and to a greater or lesser degree become absorbed into the dominant culture. Some of these Indians will abandon their cultural heritage altogether, while others may make only minor accommodations as a result of having a non-Indian spouse. This raises a question that is extremely controversial within many quarters of the American Indian community: Are American Indians assimilating so quickly through intermarriage that they will eventually, in the not too distant future, marry themselves out of existence (Wilkins, 2002, p.38)?

26. Trans-Boundary Issues

Tourism/gaming speeds up assimilation as it introduces different cultures together, promoting cultural blending, racial blending and diluting of heritage.

27. Rights

At what point will Indians be so assimilated into U.S. culture that they will no longer retain rights as members of sovereign nations?

28. Relevant Literature

Alesch, J (1997). The Impact of Casino Gambling on Metropolitan Green Bay; Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Report - September 1997, Volume 10, Number 6

D’Hauteserre, Anne-Marie (1998). Foxwoods Casino Resort: An Unusual Experiment in Economic Development. Economic Geography; 1998; Research Library Core, pg. 112.

Donnely, Francis (2000) Casinos Give Michigan’s Tribes Economic, Social, Political Clout. The Detroit News; Jan 2000.

Lew, Alan (1998) Tourism and Gaming on American Indian Lands. (pp. ) Cognizant Communication Offices, New York.

Lent, Eric S (2003). Are States Beating the House?: The Validity of Tribal-State Revenue Sharing Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Georgetown Law Journal; Jan 2003; 91, 2, Law Module.

Mason, W Dale (1996). Indian Gaming: Tribal Sovereignty and American Politics. University of Oklahoma Press, Oklahoma.

Smith, D.H. (1994). The issue of compatibility between cultural integrity and economic development among Native American tribes. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 18(2), 177-205.

The Economic Resource Group, Inc.; American Indian Gaming Policy and its Socio-Economic Effects – A Report to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. July, 31, 1998.

Ford Foundation (1972). The Gift That Hurt the Indians. 1972, Ford Foundation Publications.

United States Environmental Protection Agency (2004). Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and of a Scoping Meeting for the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria Casino and Hotel Project, Sonoma County, CA; Federal Register: February 12, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 29)
 

Wilkins, David E. (2002). American Indian Politics and the American Political System. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Incorporated, Maryland.

VII Conclusion

29. Policy Implications

Suggested intervention would be modeling the framework of the current situation, understanding the closing policy window, and realizing that the model is there. They are able to be successful; this is a step in the right direction because it proves that it is possible. Tourism has been the first step in letting the world knows that Indians are not lazy, they are not unable to adopt capitalistic tendencies; it is evidence that they have been given a raw deal, but can realize the American dream as much or more than anyone else. Future development may not be in the realm of tourism, but the tourism model, in a certain capacity, worked for many Native American tribes. This is where research needs to be undertaken: identifying industries that fit the model of successful Indian economic development policy within the tourism/gaming industry and applying those industries to that model it accordingly.

One of the main difficulties in analyzing tribal economic development is that the literature has a tendency to group all tribes into one single entity. Reference is made to ‘Indian Gaming’, ‘Indian Country’, ‘American Indian Politics’, ‘Native American development’, etc. In reality, there are over five hundred different independent nations, dispersed across the continent with a spectrum of individual physical attributes, reservation sizes, socio-economic makeup, natural resources, systems of government, and infrastructure. In addition, the political geography of each tribe varies based upon what state or states the tribe is located within.

It is, therefore, of utmost importance to take tribal individuality into consideration in terms of policy. What works for one tribe may not be viable for another tribe. The general literature seems to convey the idea that traditional tourism, failing for a number of reasons to generate normal returns, may not be the best recovery industry for Native Americans. Yet, by lumping tribes together to get an overall view, individual tribes may be overlooked that might benefit greatly from traditional tourism.

30. Recommendations

Research methodology of tribal gaming is predominantly undertaken by case study. The only way to determine real world impact with certainty is to actually study the cases. The case study method is reliable to a certain degree. A relatively short time has passed since the commencing of Indian Gaming (in terms of nation-building), so long term economic outlooks can only be estimated and based upon past history of similar situations.

The Native American community has been historically unable to develop sustainable economic gains in their transition from nomadic life to settlements. Therefore, very little research exists in terms of modeling for successful growth. These studies present cases of successful economic development through tourism and gaming which should be analyzed and applied to future plans for development.

In addition, very little research exists regarding the effect that Indian Gaming has on the gambling economies of states, such as state-run lotteries. There needs to be a good distinction from this type of wagering solely for a chance of winning and ‘destination gaming’ which can be considered a form of tourism and entertainment.