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Restricting Indian Gaming To Homelands Of Tribes Act Of 2006

Date: Sept. 13, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Indigenous Peoples


RESTRICTING INDIAN GAMING TO HOMELANDS OF TRIBES ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - September 13, 2006)

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Mr. DENT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in favor of H.R. 4893, the Restricting Indian Gaming to Homelands of Tribes Act of 2006.

The expansion of tribal casinos to lands whose connection to Native American culture is limited or attenuated at best. This is a growing problem throughout the United States. No one wants to deny Native Americans the right to pursue government recognition of their tribal connections and to celebrate their native cultures.

Increasingly, however, groups anxious to promote casino gambling have aligned with some Native American groups for the sole purpose of utilizing the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, IGRA, to promote the establishment of casinos.

In my district, the Delaware Nation, which is headquartered in Oklahoma, has filed suit in Federal court to establish title to a 315-acre tract of land in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, so it can build a gambling facility. More than 25 families live on this property. It is also home to the Binney and Smith Company, on which it has placed a Crayola crayon manufacturing facility. The individuals trying to establish this casino, who all reside out-of-State, are not concerned about the area's homeowners, about the valuable manufacturing jobs potentially displaced by this casino, or about the fact that Binney and Smith's Crayola makes a useful product loved by children all over the world.

They are only interested in seeing working people and seniors gamble away their hard-earned dollars. H.R. 4983 would effectively end this kind of reservation shopping. It prohibits gambling on Indian lands outside of the State in which that tribe is primarily residing and exercising tribal authority as of the date of this law's enactment, unless those lands are contiguous to lands currently overseen and occupied by that tribe.

This prevents a tribe with headquarters, in, say, California or Oklahoma from acquiring lands in places like Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania, where there are no federally recognized Indian tribes, for the sole purpose of putting a casino on those properties.

Homeowners and business owners should not be held hostage to out-of-state casino interests that are willing to throw people out of their homes and destroy local businesses in order to further the expansion of casino gambling.

I would ask for all Members to support H.R. 4893.

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