American Indians protesting denial of casino profits

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Dozens of American Indians in several states tried to launch a national movement last week as they protested the growing trend of Native Americans being denied profits from tribal casinos following political disputes.

They denounced what they said was tribal corruption in demonstrations outside the Western Indian Gaming Conference here, a meeting already overshadowed by the scandal over Capitol Hill lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty this month to conspiracy to defraud Indians with casino interests of more than $20 million.

Thousands of Indians nationwide — including 4,000 people in California — have been stripped of or denied rightful membership in their tribes, and 75 percent of the California cases involved controversies over casinos, said Laura Wass, founder of the Many Lightnings American Indian Legacy Center in Fresno, Calif.

One of the protesters last week was Donald Wanatee Sr., who lived for nearly all of his 73 years on an Iowa reservation but, in a single day last spring, went from tribal elder to tribal outcast.

His exile followed a struggle over a tribal casino that pitted Indian against Indian within the Sac and Fox Tribe of Mississippi in Iowa. He, his brother and 16 other members of the tribe ultimately lost to a rival faction. Last May, they stopped receiving their share of gaming profits amounting to $2,000 a month each in the 1,300-member nation in central Iowa, Wanatee said.

Disenrollments are often appealed to U.S. courts, but tribal leaders have defeated or deferred the challenges by asserting that Indian nations have sovereignty in determining membership. Tribal councils have defended the removals as legitimate and allowable under their constitutions, with due process given to all.

Anthony Miranda, chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Commission that sponsored the gaming conference, said his group didn't involve itself in enrollment disputes, explaining that they were local tribal matters.

"As an association we view that as an internal government issue. You really have to look at that on a tribe-by-tribe basis," Miranda said.

About 1,500 of the disenrollments occurred after an official challenge by another tribe member or leader who questioned a fellow member's blood percentage or alleged that an ancestor left the reservation or tribe's rolls decades ago, voiding descendants' standing, according to protesters here.

In the other cases, Indians were often denied recognition after tribes imposed a moratorium on enrollments, despite the individuals' longstanding ties, said Mark Maslin, a protest organizer.