American Indians have always occupied an outsized place in our imagination, usually as a noble people, at one with a pristine North American continent prior to the arrival of the white man. It's time to upgrade the image. Forget buffalo, eagle feathers and tribal dances. Think slots, Harrah's and dirty politics.
The California recall is providing the nation an intense education in contemporary American politics, and high on the list of lessons is that Indian tribes have, lucratively, sold their souls to gambling and can buy off or defeat anyone who might want to stand in their way. California tribes make some $5 billion a year in gambling revenue and have poured more than $120 million into state political campaigns since 1998.
Across the country, from Minnesota to Oklahoma, it's much the same story. It's time to ditch the fiction of tribal sovereignty and recognize the tribes for what they are: good, old-fashioned, all-American sleaze merchants and scam artists. They should be fully welcomed into the American family like used-car salesmen, Hollywood and telephone marketers.
A 25-member California tribe, the Cabazons, created the predicate for the explosion of Indian gambling by winning a Supreme Court decision in 1987 allowing tribes to run gambling operations that otherwise would violate state law. Congress soon passed legislation saying that gambling must be allowed on reservations, and states should reach "compacts" with tribes over the details.
In California, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson was a tough bargainer with the tribes, so they took matters into their own hands. They spent tens of millions of dollars to pass two propositions opening the state to more Indian gambling, and they bought new Gov. Gray Davis ($1.8 million in tribal cash for his re-election last year), who cut a generous compact with them in 1999.
California is now on the way to becoming the West Coast's Las Vegas, with an Indian inflection. The tribes oppose the expansion of anyone else's gambling in the state, but aggressively push their own. The specter of recall has Davis eager to cut deals for more Indian gambling, as he hears the footsteps of Democratic recall candidate Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (roughly $500,000 in tribal contributions from the Barona and Viejas bands alone since 1998).