No Foxwoods

How much worse off would native American communities be were state gambling laws to prevent the emergence of such American Indian casinos as Foxwoods on the Mashantucket-Pequot reservation in Connecticut ?

By extension, for us Aussies, WI the Cth govt hadn't handed back control of Aboriginal sacred sites to traditional owners, such as with Uluru in 1981 and Kata-Tjuta in 1985 ?

First, the folks who own the Foxwoods resort, and its Mohegan Sun neighbor, are as about as 'Indian' as you and I. Identity politics is a ticklish subject but claiming you are suddenly 'indian' because one of your great-great-grandparents checked off that box on a census form a century ago is bullshit. Will there be a Jedi Knights minority in the UK a century hence? In the case of Foxwoods, a few sharp operators saw an opportunity and ran with it. What they accomplished could never happen now because the loopholes they shamelessly exploited have been closed.

Second, aside from very few exceptions, most 'native Americans' live west of the Mississippi and recieve no casino revenue whatsoever. The impact of Foxwoods has been wholly negative on these people. Any project they propose is now scrutinized to the Nth degree in order to prevent another 'Cancer of Connecticut'.


Bill