Connecticut Governor Dannell P. Malloy opposes changes to the Bureau of Indian Affairs criteria for recognizing tribes and has asked President Barack Obama to step in the stop them being implemented.
Unless this happens, says Malloy, Connecticut, which already has two of the largest Indian casinos in the country could end up with three more.
Those three tribes are the Golden Hill Paugussett Indians in Trumbull, the Schaghticoke Indians in Kent and the Eastern Pequots in Stonington, which the federal government has so far declined to recognize.
The BIA is contemplating a change that would allow any tribe that has maintained a state reservation since 1934 to be eligible for federal recognition. The existing rule requires a tribe to show continuity and date its ancestry back to “first contact” by the federal government.
“For Connecticut, the consequences would be devastating,” wrote the governor, who notes that each of the three has shown interest in building a casino. He added that only his state would be affected by the change.
Richard Velky, chief of the Schaghticokes, pointed out that Obama requested the Bureau to institute the change. “It was Obama who issued the executive order to the assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior. It’s ironic he would ask him to make the change when Obama implemented them to begin with,” he said.
State Attorney General George Jepson is giving the governor some covering fire, commenting last week, “The proposed changes to federal tribal acknowledgement criteria and decision process are very significant for Connecticut, and I appreciate and support the continued advocacy of Gov. (Dannel P.) Malloy and the members of our federal delegation on this issue,” Jepsen said.
In a separate but related development the director of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Commission, James Meskill, testified to state lawmakers that Connecticut could lose millions of dollars if they don’t ban internet sweepstakes.
Meskill claims that internet sweepstakes violates the state tribal gaming compact with the Mohegan tribe, which gives it exclusivity in gaming. If that view were to prevail, the tribe would no longer be required to pay 25 percent of its gaming revenues to the state.
Meskill was testifying in favor of Senate Bill 80 that would ban internet cafes. Other critics called such operations a way to take advantage of the poor and seniors.
Police raids recently shut down several such operations after they were exposed by a TV investigation.
No one spoke against the bill.
