Hang on, Tiguas; hang on Texas tribes. Do all you can to sustain your voice as Native nations that deserve your place in the world. Texas is showing that it will not allow Indian gaming enterprises as currently defined and interpreted by Texas law.
In what now all seems somehow strangely forecast by the 2000 presidential contest, the Tigua government and the programs it funds by its own business revenues are gravely threatened. Likewise, the city of El Paso has taken a tremendous economic hit. Indian leadership may well remember when then presidential candidate and Texas Governor George W. Bush said states “reign supreme” over Indian nations. Although several aides rushed forward on behalf of the candidate, saying he didn’t really mean what he said, his initial statement has now played itself out, literally, in Texas.
Unlike most of the tribes in the United States, the Tigua do lie under the thumb of the state government. The tribe gave up damaging portions of its sovereignty in the deal it struck in the 1987 Act for the Restoration of the Federal Trust Relationship. (On the other side of the country, the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy in Maine have also been living through a nightmare created by concessions too easily granted in return for recognition.) In Sec. 737, the act states, “All gaming activities which are prohibited by the laws of the State of Texas are hereby prohibited on the reservation and on lands of the tribe. Any violation of the prohibition provided in this subsection shall be subject to the same civil and criminal penalties that are provided by the laws of the State of Texas.”
Notably this act was written the same year as the Cabazon Supreme Court decision, which laid out the sovereignty framework for Indian gaming, and a year before the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), which established the procedural compromise between tribes and state governments. Gaming was much more than a cloud on the horizon.
The Tigua respond that since this act was written, Texas has instituted a state lottery. Since the state just offered a jackpot of $9 million for the March 1 Texas Lotto, its attempt to ban high-stakes gambling reeks of hypocrisy. The point is valid and consistent with the spirit of IGRA, but the root cause of the problem is a legal framework that was accepted with too little foresight. The Alabama-Coushatta signed on to the same bill, (in fact it declared the union of those two tribes) and they appear to be heading through the same wringer. Only the Traditional Kickapoo near Eagle Pass have managed to stay aloof. What had been a legal fight has now entered the political arena.
The El Paso Times reports that gambling resumption could hinge on elections. Some politicians are for gaming; others are not. Just the closing of the Tigua’s Speaking Rock Casino is showing great economic impacts. The casino pulls in about $60 million each year, the main source of income for a tribe that was severely poor a decade ago. It had also employed about 800 non-tribal members. (The Texas Workforce Commission, a state service, has put up a special office to handle the expected rush of Speaking Rock employees laid off by the court-ordered shutdown of the Tigua casino.) However, depending on who becomes the next governor and lieutenant governor, Indian Nations may yet have a future in Texas.
Last year, the Texas House passed legislation opening the way for gaming in three Texas reservations. But it only took one well-placed politician, acting Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, to kill it in the Senate. A lieutenant governor with a different attitude toward Indians and their right to economic sustainability would make all the difference.
Now, Ratliff is stepping down to run for the Senate, and a new governor’s race is on. The democratic contenders seem to support a state referendum on Indian gaming, but are not being too vocal about it. Then the former attorney general, an opponent of gaming, says he would support a referendum. Incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry is silent on questions about a referendum.
State Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, a former prosecutor and sheriff, is an ardent supporter of Indian gaming as a tool in economic development. He is urging lawmakers to present voters with a proposal for a constitutional amendment to legalize gaming on the state’s three Indian reservations. The alternative would be to renew efforts to give the tribes an affirmative defense versus the state’s gambling laws. That is the purpose of Keel’s co-authored bill, HB 514. Keel promises to push the new governor and lieutenant governor to not veto his bill.
Tigua Gov. Albert Alvidrez is watchful of the Legislature. Particularly if a new lieutenant governor is supportive, earlier legislative failures for the tribal gaming might be reversed. State Senate opponents are mostly Republicans, who claim to have the votes to defeat a pro-tribal initiative.
Rep. Juan J. Hinojosa, D-McAllen, who is running for the Texas Senate, sponsored and coauthored the Indian gaming bill that passed the House last year. It was his legislation that was blocked from Senate consideration by Ratliff. If he wins his Senate race, Hinojosa has vowed to support the issue. The casino closing, he said, is a blow to the whole city of El Paso. And he is absolutely correct.
The Tigua ran their casino for six years without much hindrance, until a new attorney general, John Cornyn, filed a lawsuit against the casino in 1999, claiming it violated state law. Decisions by a federal district court and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supported the attorney general.
Now, with the U.S. Supreme Court denying oral arguments on the case, the casino is closed, shattering hopes for the building of a prosperous Tigua Nation and El Paso economic life. Difficult times lie ahead, but perhaps the Tigua and other Texas tribes will yet find a way forward.
This is a painful experience for the Tigua, and a vivid lesson for all American Indian nations. Never sign away any sovereign power or authority your ancestors had managed to retain ? even through more difficult times. Always know that the federal and state governments will act in their best interests, not yours. Comprehend that the historic trend of American powers to remove American Indians from their lands, resources and markets, did not begin and end “200 years ago.” And understand that it is essential to protect your economic rights. Sovereignty is less meaningful and effective without a protected and secure tribal economy.
