Chapter 22
Native Americans: Today and Tomorrow
In This Chapter
Calling an Indian a Native American . . . and vice versa
Going over grave matters
Promising progress
Recapping today’s top ten tribes
Getting into gambling
What is life in America like these days for Native Americans? And is it possible for an entire ethnic group to suffer from post-traumatic stress?
Make no mistake about it: If there is any single ethnic group that underwent trauma warranting subsequent stress, it is the American Indian.
But time passes, and the American Indian is now a vibrant and productive member of the American melting pot, a rich color in the American ethnic quilt. Sure, there are problems, and many of them are due to what they went through in the past (covered at length elsewhere in this book) but now there are Native American PhDs, and physicians, and engineers, and teachers, and computer programmers, and business owners, and writers.
This chapter looks at the state of the American Indian today, and what is on the horizon for this earliest inhabitant of what is now the United States of America.
An Indian By Any Other Name . . .
Columbus didn’t make it to “India,” so why do we still call the Natives (and all their descendants) that he encountered when he did finally sight land “Indians”?
And how do Native Indigenous people feel about being called Indians? Has the term become politically incorrect? An insult? A slur? Is “Native American” the proper way to describe people who had been here for thousands of years when the Europeans first arrived? Have we witnessed an evolution of an ethnic/racial identifier, as we did when culture and society went from Negro, to Afro-American, to Black, to African American?
But what about the inaccuracy of the term? Isn’t a woman born in Boston to Italian-American parents a “native American” in the strictest sense of the term? And can’t the same be said about any single person born on American soil?
This is a real issue, and there is real resistance to granting only descendants of pre-contact Indigenous people the title Native American, yet many Native Americans prefer it — but not all.
So what should these 4.1 million people be called then?
The fact is that the phrase American Indian is a legal descriptor. Consider:
The Bureau of Indian Affairs
The National Museum of the American Indian
The National Congress of American Indians
The American Indian Heritage Foundation
The American Indian Art Magazine
The American Indian Movement (AIM)
The American Indian Science & Engineering Society (AISES)
. . . and so forth.
Yet, the repatriation law (see “Repatriation: Resting in Peace” later in this chapter) is titled the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and many other bills and laws use the term “Native American.”
As is the case with many ethnic groups, Means has decided to reclaim the inaccurate and often abused term Indian and declare it as his and his peoples’ own, and to do so with a fierce sense of ethnic pride and entitlement.
Today, many Indians prefer to be identified by their tribe. And this makes all the sense in the world when you think about it.
White people from the U.S. and Europe say, “I’m an American.” “I’m a German.” “I’m Scottish.” And since tribes are sovereign nations, identifying ones nationality by stating the name of their “nation” — Choctaw, Navajo, Sioux, Apache, and so forth — is appropriate and solves the problem of trying to find a way to establish ethnicity by using the term Indian — which, while it is the legal term, is still historically errant — or “Native American,” which can rankle Americans who claim the same sobriquet based on being born in Dubuque or Scranton.
We have used both terms interchangeably in this book because that’s what countless Indians and Native Americans do.
The truth is that the term “Indian” has morphed into a true identifier, and everyone knows what it means. Many Native Americans take no umbrage at being addressed as an Indian, its historical inaccuracy notwithstanding.
Repatriation: Resting in Peace
Repatriation is the returning of cultural artifacts and human remains and bones to Native American tribes.
The U.S. government states, “The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) is a Federal law passed in 1990. NAGPRA provides a process for museums and Federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items — human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony — to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations.”
For the museums that comprise the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of the American Indian Act (NMAI Act), passed in 1989 and amended in 1996, governs repatriation.
Repatriation is a complex process for both tribes and the institutions holding remains. From the outside, it can seem like museums and tribes would be at each other’s throats over the right to possess and control Native American remains. In fact, while in the beginning, challenging situations arose, today it can be more common for tribes and museums to work together to determine cultural affiliation. In addition, by beginning to work together on repatriation, tribes sometimes decide to work more closely with archaeologists on other avenues of scientific inquiry. Many Native people have even chosen to become archaeologists in part because of having to work on this issue for our tribes.
These are the official definitions from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History’s Repatriation Office regarding artifacts and remains:
Culturally affiliated human remains: The legislation defines these as human remains with whom a demonstrable relationship of shared group identity can be shown to an existing federally recognized American Indian tribe, Alaska Native Village, or Regional Corporation or Native Hawaiian organization, based on a preponderance of evidence.
Associated and Unassociated Funerary Objects: Funerary objects are items that, as part of the death rites of a culture, are believed to have been intentionally placed with an individual at the time of death or later. An object is considered to be “associated” if the human remains with which it was originally interred are present at the National Museum of Natural History.
Sacred Objects: These are specific ceremonial objects that are needed by traditional Native American religious leaders for the practice of traditional Native American religions by their present-day adherents.
Objects of Cultural Patrimony: An object having ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance central to the Native American group or culture itself, rather than property owned by an individual Native American, and which, therefore, cannot be alienated, appropriated, or conveyed by any individual regardless of whether or not the individual is a member of the Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization and such object shall have been considered inalienable by such Native American group at the time the object was separated from such group.
Remains of Individuals whose Identity is Known: The return of the remains of named individuals to lineal descendants was an established priority for the National Museum of Natural History, even prior to the passage of the NMAI Act. This policy continues to be in effect. Very few of the individuals whose remains are in the collections of the National Museum of Natural History are known by name.
Objects Acquired Illegally: In accordance with long-standing Smithsonian policy, the National Museum of Natural History may repatriate any materials acquired by or transferred to the National Museum of Natural History illegally or under circumstances that render invalid the Museum’s claim to them. (Source: Smithsonian Institution Repatriation Office.)
As per the National Museum of the American Indian Act, the National Museum of Natural History has issued detailed reports on cultural artifacts and human remains held in its collection for dozens of cultures and ten culture areas.
These reports are painstakingly compiled upon tribal inquiries and then disposition is decided upon in consultation with tribal leaders. The Repatriation Office defers to the tribes regarding the cultural identification and significance of individual items.
What does it matter where the remains are?
It may be difficult for non-Natives to understand just how important repatriation is. Imagine if you had always thought that your grandparents and your grandparents’ grandparents were resting quietly in their graves and suddenly learned that this was not the case. For American Indians, the removal of human remains and funerary objects is just one more in a long line of insults, To make matters worse, it is sometimes the case that remains were destroyed or lost by the scientific institutions who were supposedly caring for them. When American Indian remains were taken to museums, they were often thought of only as “specimens” for scientific study, and not as beloved human ancestors. Repatriation is the process through which the human nature of the remains is returned to them.
In addition, repatriation has meant that Native people have become more involved in the practice of anthropology and archaeology. Because tribes were forced to work with museums and archaeologists in order to bring remains home, tribal members began to acquire specialized knowledge in museum studies and archaeology. Today, there are many Native American archaeologists, all of whom hold the highest standards of scientific integrity while still maintaining cultural values.
Native American Stats
Native Americans are the fourth-largest minority group in the United States after Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians, yet their overall state of affairs as a group is in many cases Third World grim. A third of all Native Americans live on reservations, where the quality of life can range from excellent to abominable.
Income
Money changes everything, money makes the world go round, money is the root of all evil, money burns a hole in your pocket, money is time, money doesn’t grow on trees . . . choose whichever cliché you like. The reality is that the dominant force in everyone’s life is how much one earns and how much one spends.
The statistics for Native Americans when it comes to earning in the U.S. do not paint a pretty picture:
The median U.S. income in the United States in 2005 was $46,326. For Native Americans? $33,627.
The poverty rate in the United States is around 13 percent. For Native Americans? Around 25 percent.
The poverty rate jumps to almost a third for Sioux, Navajo, and Apache tribe members.
In 2005, just under 16 percent of the U.S. population had no health insurance. For Native Americans? Around 30 percent have no coverage.
In 2000, around 34 percent of the American workforce were employed in professional or management occupations. For Native Americans? Around 26 percent. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau.)
The percentage of homeowners in the U.S. is around 66 percent nationwide. For Native Americans? Around 56 percent.
Native Americans are incarcerated at a rate 38 percent higher than the national per capita rate. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice.)
Native American families, on average, are larger than the average American family: 3.06 people versus 2.59. Yet the number of single-parent Native American households — and we’re speaking of both motherless and fatherless households — exceeds the average number of single-parent American households.
For almost three decades (since the 1980 census), the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota has been declared one of the ten poorest counties in America. The reason? No jobs.
A quarter of Sioux, Navajo, and Pueblo households are run by a woman without a husband present.
The situation is improving slowly for Native Americans, and education is, as has long been touted, the silver bullet when it comes to pulling minorities out of poverty and improving their living conditions.
Education
Educational levels of Native Americans are below the national average, yet they have grown significantly over the past few decades.
In the year 2000, 70.9 percent of Native Americans had graduated from high school. At the time, the national average was 84.6 percent. In terms of higher education, only 11 percent of the Native American population had earned a bachelor’s degree, compared to more than double that — 24 percent — for the rest of the U.S. population. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau.)
Yet these numbers are much higher than the same statistics as recently as 1990.
Graduation day
Tribes in which a high percentage of its members are high school graduates:
Creek
Choctaw
Iroquois
Occupations
How bad is unemployment for Native Americans?
This is not a simple question to answer, because Native American unemployment figures are often difficult to ascertain accurately. Someone is considered “unemployed” if they are available for work, able to work, and actively sought a job in the past four weeks.
There are many Indian reservations and villages where there are no jobs. People there commonly don’t look for work because they know it’s often futile. Also, there are Natives who choose to focus on seasonal subsistence strategies like hunting and fishing and are what the federal government considers “voluntarily idle”; that is, not in the workforce through choice.
Also, when tribal governments control, through sovereignty, all aspects of a tribe’s existence, including infrastructure, employment, and law enforcement, and yet resources are not in place to expand and improve, stagnation is inevitable, along with its unavoidable result, poverty.
In the past few decades, the numbers of Native American and Alaska Native businesses have climbed.
For example, a 1997 U.S. Census Bureau industry breakdown report found that 14 percent of the construction businesses in the U.S. were owned by Native Americans or Alaska Natives. Likewise, 17 percent of service businesses and 8 percent of retail businesses.
In 2002, Native American–owned businesses — which number over 200,000 firms — did around $27 billion in sales. The state with the most Native American– owned businesses is California, followed by Oklahoma, Texas, New York, and Florida. The number of Native American–owned businesses with 100 or more employees was 178, and these businesses did a total of close to $6 billion in sales.
Alcoholism and the Native American
Five of the top ten causes of death among Native Americans are related to abuse of alcohol. This is about four times the rate in America as a whole.
According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, alcohol abuse among 13-year-old Native American children is ten times the national average — 1 percent vs. 0.1 percent. Yes, 13-year olds.
And sadly, the suicide rate among Native Americans is 1.5 times the national rate, and alcohol plays a role in a great many of these tragic deaths.
So how did Native Americans get into so much trouble with booze? And why does alcohol have such a statistically significantly higher rate of damage and destruction among Native Americans?
The legendary Blackfoot chief Crowfoot summed up alcohol’s nefarious impact on his people:
The whiskey brought among us by the traders is fast killing us off. We are powerless before this evil. We are unable to resist the temptation to drink when brought in contact with the white man’s water. Our horses, buffalo robes, and other articles of trade go for whiskey.
Alcohol became a factor in the Indians’ lives from their earliest encounters with the Europeans. It quickly became a form of currency, and traders exploited its effects in many ways, most notably in trade deals that they were able to skew in their favor.
Is it true that Indians lack a gene to process alcohol? Or perhaps the better question is, is there actually a verifiable genetic component to alcohol abuse? Can alcoholics justifiably claim that being an alcoholic is due to their genes?
The answer to these questions seems to be yes. In a 1994 study funded by the National Institutes of Health at the Indiana Alcohol Research Center at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Dr. Ting-Kai Li discovered that Native Americans do not possess what he describes as “protective genes.”
But the trend in the Native American community is toward controlling alcohol and minimizing the deleterious effects of alcoholism, and this has been ongoing for years. In 1999, Yvette Joseph-Fox, the Executive Director of the National Indian Health Board, revealed in a statement before Congress that Native Americans as an ethnic group abstain from alcohol in greater numbers and percentages than any other ethnic group in America.
Mineral Wealth and Offshore Banking: Native American Economic Bright Spots
There’s more to Indian moneymaking than casinos. (See Chapter 21 for more.) The Blackfeet have their own bank.
The exploitation of natural resources on tribal lands has been a good source of income for some tribes, but this comes with its own set of challenging issues.
The banking Blackfeet
In 1999, the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana chartered their own offshore depository called Glacier International Depository. As a sovereign nation, the Blackfeet are exempt from federal and state banking regulations and were, thus, free to launch their own “offshore bank.”
The GID has only foreign depositors, and they make it clear that no funds are kept in the United States and no depositor funds are kept on Blackfeet tribal land. The GID serves foreign depositors who desire anonymity and security.
The GID has been a winner for the Blackfeet, although after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, they have been faced with increased scrutiny thanks to the Patriot Act. All international financial transactions are now scrutinized, and many foreign investors have shied away from GID because of the hassles.
Yet, by any standard, the endeavor is a success. In May 2006, GID announced that they had signed an exclusive agreement with FranTech Switzerland Licensing of Zurich, Switzerland, to market GID’s foreign depository services licenses (called “Global Cash Management”) through FranTech’s network of 600 agents in 220 countries to governments around the world.
The Blackfeet’s success has certainly spurred interest in other tribes in expanding into the international banking business.
Money from mineral rights
According to the Division of Energy and Mineral Resources Management of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in fiscal year 2000 mineral resources royalties from American Indian leases in the continental United States totaled almost $245 million:
Gas: 45 percent
Coal: 27 percent
Oil: 22 percent
Other: 6 percent
Under the BIA’s Mineral Assessment Program, tribes can request a wide array of assistance from the BIA, including:
Provide economic evaluations of energy and mineral resources to Indian mineral owners as requested.
Provide studies on the current and expected energy and mineral market conditions.
Provide expert technical advice in geology, mining engineering, renewable energy resource assessments, design and engineering, petroleum engineering, and geophysics to Indian mineral owners.
These services are providing opportunities for tribes to reap benefits from valuable resources on and beneath the lands they own. In addition to traditional mining operations, tribes are looking to the wind and the sea, and the forest and the rivers for ways to profitably utilize lucrative natural resources and provide a steady income for their people.
For example, tribes today are involved in:
Oil, gas, and coal mining operations throughout Indian lands
The development of wind farms and tidal plants for generating electricity by the Passamaquoddy, the Omaha Sioux tribes, and the Ewiiaapaayp
The building of hydroelectric plants utilizing rivers as an energy source by the Colorado River Indian Tribe
Development of biodiesel plants by the Nez Perce
Use of biomass — logging and mill residue — as a power source by the St. Croix tribe
Prior to April 2005, the Division of Energy and Mineral Resources Management reported to the Depart of Trust Services of the BIA. Today, the Division reports to a newly formed agency, the Office of Indian Energy Resources and Economic Development.
The development of mineral resources on tribal lands can be problematic, though, when the infrastructure involved puts the environment at risk. Particularly difficult are the cases where sacred sites are impacted by development. Mining operations may threaten important mountains. The use of water in coal mining may impact sacred springs. Lumbering operations may lead to changes in the sacred landscape or in animal habitat. While natural resources seem like an obvious source of revenue for tribes, they are not without a high cost to the tribes.
The Top Ten Tribes Today
Table 22-1 details the top ten tribes in the United States and their numbers, in descending order:
| Tribe | Population | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cherokee | 302,569 | |||||
| Navajo | 276,775 | |||||
| Sioux | 113,713 | |||||
| Chippewa | 110,857 | |||||
| Choctaw | 88,692 | |||||
| Pueblo | 59,621 | |||||
| Apache | 57,199 | |||||
| Lumbee | 52,614 | |||||
| Iroquois | 47,746 | |||||
| Creek | 40,487 |
These tribes make up 0.41 percent of the U.S. population.
Here is a “snapshot” of each of the top ten today. (See Chapters 6 and 7 for more information on the Five Civilized Tribes and other major tribes.)
Cherokee
The Cherokee Nation is the largest tribal group in the United States. They comprise three separate federally recognized bands:
The Cherokee Nation, 250,000+ members (www.cherokee.org)
The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, 10,000+ members (www.unitedkeetoowahband.org/)
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, 13,400 members (www. nc-cherokee.com/)
Navajo
The Navajo are the second-largest tribal group in America today in terms of population, but they possess the largest tribal reservation, with land covering 27,000 square miles in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
In 2003, Navajo tribal revenue was $137 million, with most of it coming from mining royalties, but the tribe’s poverty rate is 43 percent, and unemployment among Navajos is a staggering 42 percent.
Sioux
The Sioux are the third-largest tribal group in America and there are many federally recognized Sioux tribes. The Pine Ridge Reservation, home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, in South Dakota — a 2-million-acre expanse the size of Connecticut — is the second-largest reservation in the country.
The Sioux Wars in the second half of the 19th century resulted in the Wounded Knee Massacre, during which 153 Sioux were killed by the U.S. military. In 1973, Sioux members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee for seventy days, resulting in 300 arrests. Six years later, the Sioux were awarded $105 million from the U.S. government for lands that had been taken from them.
Chippewa/Anishinabe
“Chippewa” is the term most used in the United States for this tribe, but tribal members prefer to be known by their original name: Anishinabe; in Canada, they’re known as Ojibway.
The Chippewa are the fourth-largest tribal group today, and Anishinabe tribes have lands mainly in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan (as well as in Canada). There are around 150 individual Chippewa bands or tribes.
Choctaw
The Choctaw people, the fifth-largest tribal group in the United States, are one of the Five Civilized Tribes (see Chapter 6 for more details on the Five Civilized Tribes) and today are organized into three bands: the Mississippi Band of Choctaw, the Jena Band of Choctaw in Louisiana, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
During World War I, Choctaw tribe members served the U.S. as code talkers, paving the way for the Navajo code talkers of World War II.
Pueblo
The Pueblo Indians, are not, strictly speaking, an individual tribe. There are many different tribes that are organized as Pueblos. Two of the more well-known are the Hopi and the Zuni.
Most Pueblos are in Arizona and New Mexico, but there is one Pueblo in far west Texas.
Apache
The Apache are organized into six separate groups, the Western Apache, the Chiricahua, the Mescalero, the Jicarilla, the Lipan, and the Plains Apache (formerly the Kiowa Apache). Cochise and Geronimo were both Apache. (See Chapter 10 for more information on Native American chiefs.)
Today, Apache tribes have territory in Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Lumbee
The status of the Lumbee Tribe is that they are the eighth-largest Native American tribe in the United States, yet they are not federally recognized and are, thus, not eligible for BIA services and all other benefits of federal recognition.
Iroquois
The Iroquois Confederacy — also known as the Haudenosaunee (which means “People of the Longhouse” or “People Building a Longhouse”) — was originally comprised of five tribes — the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondonga, Cayuga, and Seneca. The Tuscaroras joined later.
Today, the six separate tribes are still extant and live in the U.S. mainly in New York, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma. There are also Iroquois in Ontario and Quebec.
Creek
These days, many Creek Indians prefer to be identified by their original name of “Muskogee.” The Creek were known as one of the Five Civilized Tribes. Today, the federally recognized Creek tribes have territory in Alabama and Oklahoma.
In partnership with the Oklahoma State University system, the Muskogee (Creek) Nation operates the College of the Muscogee Nation in Okmulgee, Oklahoma.
How Native Americans Ended Up in the Casino Business
The Mashantucket Pequot tribe operates the Foxwoods Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut. Foxwoods is the largest casino in the world and, since its launch in 1993, has paid more than $2.4 billion to the state of Connecticut (through March 2007) as the state’s share of the take. Foxwoods offers concerts, res- taurants, shopping, golf, salons and spas, hotels, and, of course, a staggering array of gambling opportunities. And a Native American tribe owns it all. The Mashantucket Pequots have used their money to advance many causes dear to all Native people. They gave one of the largest donations to help establish the National Museum of the American Indian and they built an incredible museum of their own up in Connecticut.
Foxwoods’ sole in-state competitor, the Mohegan Sun Casino, is the second-largest casino in the world and, since its launch in 1997, has paid $1.7 billion to the state of Connecticut (also through March 2007). Like Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun offers many of the same amenities and also like Foxwoods, an Indian tribe runs the show. (The Mohegans are not to be confused with the Mahicans or the Mohicans.)
For many tribes, launching a gaming enterprise was the path to self-sufficiency and, in many cases, great wealth. The Seminoles were poor before starting the Indian gambling phenomenon; now the tribe leaders fly around in private jets.
There are currently around 360 Indian gaming establishments in the United States. Of the more than 560 federally recognized tribes, just over 200 of them have their own casinos. And of the casinos that do exist, the majority of them are nowhere near as profitable as the casinos in Connecticut, or on the West Coast. Most tribes who have gaming enterprises make a modest amount of money, but of course, every little bit helps.
One recent study estimated that just over 10 percent of the Indian gaming establishments in the United States generate close to 3/4 of all the revenue from Indian gambling.
But there is no denying that gambling has been an economic boon for Native Americans, as well as the states in which they’re located.
The Seminoles were first
The Seminoles were the first Native American tribe to offer high-stakes gambling when they opened a bingo parlor in Hollywood, Florida, in 1979. The jackpot was $4,000, and the crowds quickly flocked to the place.
Today, the Seminole tribe of Florida has seven casinos in the Sunshine State, owns the line of Hard Rock Cafes (which they purchased in 2006 for close to a billion dollars), and the tribe provides a dividend to each of its 3,300 members in an amount rumored to be in excess of $40,000 per year. (And this is per person. So if it’s a family of five . . . well, do the math.)
There is also a significant population of Seminoles in Oklahoma and they, too, are in the casino business with six gaming establishments throughout the state, including the Mystic Winds Casino in Seminole, and the Rivermist Casino in Konawa. As is typical for most casinos, slots and blackjack are the big draws, although the Rivermist also offers off-track betting.
The 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
In 1988, there were several tribes running gaming joints and the federal government, as federal governments are often wont to do, decided new laws were needed to regulate said Indian gambling enterprises. The Feds admit as much in two of the first Findings of the Act:
The Congress finds that
Numerous Indian tribes have become engaged in or have licensed gaming activities on Indian lands as a means of generating tribal governmental revenue.
Existing Federal law does not provide clear standards or regulations for the conduct of gaming on Indian lands.
Three types of gambling were defined in the Act:
Class I: This covers traditional Indian games with minimal prizes or non-monetary prizes awarded. The tribes had total jurisdiction over this type of gambling.
Class II: This covers bingo, and games like bingo, including punch cards, pull tabs, and other like games. This category also included what are called “non-banked” card games. Non-banked card games are when players play only against each other and there is no “bank” or “house” to beat. Again, the tribes were in charge of these types of games and the IGRA didn’t establish any legal guidelines.
Class III: This category is the big one, the one that can be summed up in those two magic words that so many tribes love these days: casino gambling. Class III gaming includes:
• Slot machines
• Blackjack
• Craps
• Roulette
• Baccarat
• Texas Hold ‘Em poker
• Faro
• Video poker
• Video lottery
• Keno
In other words, Class III games are games where you can win a bundle, or lose your shirt. These are the games under federal jurisdiction, and the IGRA was written so that new regulations can be implemented whenever the Commissioner of the National Indian Gaming Commission sees fit.
Sharing the wealth?
There’s a widespread misconception among many Americans that all Native Americans are getting rich from the casino business, and that tribes that have hugely successful gambling operations distribute their profits to all the Indians in America.
This couldn’t be further from the truth, although the tribes that do have gaming businesses and share the proceeds end up paying out sometimes enormous monthly checks for official tribal members. For example, the Pechanga Indians of California own a casino in Temecula, California, that provides each tribe member with a check for around $15,000 a month. Fifteen grand a month equals a $180K a year income for simply being part of a tribe. Not bad.
Tribes that make money through gaming enterprises — like the Mashantucket Pequot tribe in Connecticut — are sovereign nations. As the Native American Rights Fund explains, if a state earns big bucks from their lottery, they have zero responsibility to share it with another state. It’s the same thing with tribes and gaming earnings.