Gov. Bill Owens brought 10 state governors and leaders from 23 tribes to Denver on Tuesday to look at ways Congress might improve the 17-year- old Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
A leading concern is a trend by isolated American Indian tribes to try to locate casinos off their reservations, near big cities and interstates, by claiming ancestral lands lost long ago.
Owens, who opposes a proposal by the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma to build a casino near Denver International Airport on a fragment of their historic homeland, said he could speak for all 50 governors on one matter.
“While we have different opinions on Indian gaming, none of us would want to see the federal government locate casinos in our states without local approval,’ Owens said. “We believe we had a close call in Colorado.’
Tribes that want to take land into trust for off-reservation casinos must win the consent of the secretary of interior and the state governor. But some tribes have sought and won direct congressional grants of trust lands eligible for Indian gambling operations.
Legislative language drafted in 2004, presumably to be inserted into larger “must-pass’ legislation, would have designated 500 acres near DIA as Cheyenne and Arapaho trust lands “without mentioning Colorado or gaming,’ according to summit information prepared by staff of the Western Governors’ Association.
“If someone wants to put a casino east of Denver, it should go to a vote of the people,’ Owens said.
But despite such holes in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the 1988 law has been effective, “the best thing to happen to tribes in 50 years,’ said Indian law expert I. Nelson Rose.
He said it might be one of the worst-written laws to ever fulfill its purpose: advancement of tribal governments and economic development.
It has resulted in an Indian gambling industry in which more than 220 tribes in 28 states pulled in $18.5 billion last year, about twice the take of Las Vegas casinos.
Stuwart Paisano, governor of the Pueblo of Sandia, which has a casino near Albuquerque, said gambling has had a very positive impact on reservations, providing jobs, educational opportunities, housing and basic infrastructure. Paisano said the summit is a historic event, promising effective communication between state and tribal governments.
Rose said the threat of reservation shopping, whereby Indian casinos will be popping up in cities countrywide, has been oversold by both sides.
“This is not as much of a threat in the real world as people think it is,’ Rose said. “It is extremely difficult to get new land.’
Tribes have tried. A northern California tribe wanted to acquire trust land near Disneyland. One tribe proposed Indian gaming on the Queen Mary. Only a handful of tribes with more reasonable proposals have succeeded, Nelson said.
Mark Van Norman, executive director of the National Indian Gaming Association, said that more than 400 tribal casinos and related businesses have created more than 553,000 jobs, of which 75 percent are filled by non-Indians.
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or edraper@denverpost.com.
