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Fixing a broken system 


Published on 08/08/2002 


Hundreds of people from around Connecticut drove to Woodstock Monday to rally against the prospect of more casinos. 

But the concern about casinos was only a surface issue. The deep-seated anger expressed at the meeting was based in the belief that the federal government is so tainted by political corruption and swayed by money that these influences play a critical role in the process of tribal recognition, and the seemingly-inevitable casinos that follow such recognition.

It's one of the reasons why Congressman Rob Simmons has proposed a bill to reform the Bureau of Indian Affairs and has asked for an investigation into the recent recognition of the Paucatuck Eastern Pequots and the Eastern Pequots as one tribe. An investigation is good; a bill is even better. As one woman at the meeting said, “We have no security. We need to fix what the Bureau of Indian Affairs broke before we do anything else.”

That emotion was real, based in reality and events over the last few years. 

Soon after taking over, former BIA chief Kevin Gover told his staff that, “acknowledgement decisions are political,” and made clear that he would base acknowledgement decisions on his personal interpretation of federal regulations, according to an investigation conducted by the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General.

•BIA decisions to recognize six tribes made in the last year of the Clinton administration were based on the determination of top officials to confer recognition against staff recommendations, the investigation said. Before this time, top officials had only acted against the recommendations of the research staff once. The Nipmucs, Eastern Pequots and the Paucatuck Eastern Pequots were among the tribes which gained preliminary recognition against the advice of research staff. 


BIA staff described the last 17 days of the Clinton Administration as “pure hell” as they were pressured by high-level political appointees within the department to recognize tribes whom they did not believe met the mandatory criteria. 
But signs that political influence holds sway in the BIA have continued after the Clinton Administration. 

Congressman Simmons said government officials assured him that the recognition of the Paucatuck Eastern Pequots and the Eastern Pequots would be rejected. That prediction proved untrue. To make the case for recognition, the tribes had paid $500,000 to lobbyist Ronald Kaufman, lobbyist for the Republican Governors Association, which Gov. John Rowland heads. Mr. Kaufman is also the brother-in-law of White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. 

The Bureau of Indian Affairs' recognition of the Paucatuck Eastern Pequot tribe and the Eastern Pequot Indian tribe was unique, according to Congressman Simmons. Under federal law, a tribe must meet seven “mandatory” criteria to gain federal recognition. In this case, the two tribes could only meet several of the criteria each. So instead of rejecting their petitions, the BIA combined both tribes into one. 
What this strongly implies is that if a tribe's petition is too weak to stand up to federal scrutiny, all that is needed is to combine one group with another. This is a precarious precedent for the federal bureaucracy, and makes light of regulations that were supposed to give the process of tribal recognition a reasonable basis.

The feeling in Woodstock was that there is no level playing field between the people and their government anymore; that, when it comes to Indian tribal recognition, as long as there is enough money, goalposts could be moved in the middle of the game and calls from the referees would be reversed.

Ultimately, the government's actions have put both tribes and ordinary citizens in a precarious position. Many said they didn't want to oppose tribal recognition, but felt they had no choice in order to fend off the casinos that would, nearly inevitably, follow. 

“How can I find a balancing point between support for Indian cultures and not supporting casinos?” one man asked.

It was a good question, and nobody offered any answer.