Wampum

Abenakis are not represented by Jack Abramoff. Neither the Vermont band that has spent several decades jumping through hoops in pursuit of federal recognition, nor we Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusettes Abenakis, who haven't.

Very few Tribal Governments have gaming operations in metro areas. Only Foxwoods and the Sun, both in Connecticut, are competitive with the historic, organized crime originated, Atlantic City and Las Vegas / Reno gaming operations, and the modern gaming operations that exploit jurisdictional margins, the so-called "riverboats". These latter operations, and state-sponsored gaming, grew as progressive taxation as a theory of public policy failed.

I personally don't pay much attention to Indian Gaming, though I do know Ernie Stevens, Jr., who heads the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA). It (gaming) was front-and-center in our minds during the Fall '03 election in Maine, but only because the Penobscot Nation and the Passamaquoddy Tribe qualified a ballot initiative to allow Maine to give them the right to operate a gaming operation anywhere in Maine -- in particular close to the New Hampshire boarder on the Portland-to-Washington rail-and-road corridor.

That is Abenaki land.

We cut the masters for the "No Casinos on Abenaki Land" posters in September and began the frankly icky task of approaching the moralistic bombastic racists of the "No on 1" campaign, which is the Maine Democratic Party, when we were saved by the polling data. By mid-October it was clear that the Penobscots had already lost the election, and it wasn't necessary for Maine Abenakis, or any other Maine Indians, to go on the record against the ballot question.

Indians and the Governments of Indians are not to blame for the failure of progressive taxation as a theory of social duty in the non-Indian and mercilessly dominant culture. Indians and the Governments of Indians did not write the body of Federal Indian Law that lead up to CALIFORNIA v. CABAZON BAND OF MISSION INDIANS, 480 U.S. 202 (1987) 480 U.S. 202.

The world of Jack Abramoff, of high-stakes Class II and Class III gaming conducted under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), is not universal. Tribal casinos located in the eastern United States generated roughly $3.8 billion in FY02. Those located in the Central United States recorded gross revenues of approximately $5.9 billion, while those located in the Western United States generated close to $4.8 billion. In FY02 12% of Indian gaming establishments generated 65% of Indian gaming revenues. Operations located in the populous areas of the West Coast (primarily California) represent the fastest growing sector of the industry. Most of Indian Country is far from profitable under any economic theory, from tourist hunting to tourist vacationing to crunchy eco-tourism to ... tourist gaming.

But every time a tribal council talks about jurisdiction, even the land use zoning code and a shack at the end of a fish pier on a pond, the good people of both parties, Democratic and Republican, run around gobbling about casinos and morality.

Abramoff doesn't represent Tribes. He's a bag man for the European Mafia that games morality as an industry. And when he's a minor memory doing time in a nicer place than any Indian felon will ever see, the Sicilians, mostly ethnic English, will be as busy as ever.