MGM Grand and some members of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus would prefer that the federal government not recognize the 200-member Pamunkey tribe of southeast Virginia. The Pamunkeys, who said they are not interested in opening a casino, would be the first tribe in the state to receive recognition. Its 1,200-acre reservation is located 120 miles south of 5 million MGM National casino resort, but that’s close enough to make the casino operators nervous. So they, along with the legislators, are urging the Obama administration to withhold federal recognition, because in the past the tribe banned intermarriage with blacks—which officials claim was only for economic reasons. The Interior Department is expected to issue a decision on Pamunkey recognition by March 30.
MGM National Harbor raised concerns about the tribe’s intermarriage ban earlier this year. MGM Resorts International spokesman Gordon Absher said the company is not opposed to Indian gambling, however, “given the increasingly competitive environment for both tribal and commercial casino gaming, these advantages should not be indiscriminately bestowed upon entities that cannot demonstrate, through long-established procedures, that they meet the basic criteria for tribal acknowledgment.”
In response, Pamunkey Chief Kevin Brown said, “MGM doesn’t want any competition on the East Coast, and we would become gaming-eligible.” Brown adding that the tribe has no plans to open a casino but will review that option. He said the tribe is more interested in protecting its fishing rights and receiving special benefits for education, housing and medical care that recognition would provide.
In September, Congressional Black Caucus members sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Attorney General Eric Holder asking them to withhold granting the Pamunkeys recognition until the Justice department completed a review. The letter cited a report by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs that quoted a Pamunkey law that stated, “No member of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe shall intermarry with anny (sic) Nation except White or Indian under penalty of forfeiting their rights in Town.”
Brown said he told the caucus that the ban had been repealed in 2012. He said it was rooted in Virginia’s culture of racism. “Racial intermixture was raised repeatedly as a rationale to divest us of our reservation and our Indian status,” he said, citing a former registrar of the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics who ordered Indians to be classified as “colored” on birth and marriage certificates. “His rationale was, of course, racial intermixture among the Indians. It was never an attack on, or reflective of, ill will toward African-Americans,” but an attempt to protect Indians.
The BIA has said the large number marriages between Pamunkeys actually helped the tribe satisfy a requirement for recognition: that a predominant portion of the group comprises a distinct community and has existed as one from historical times to the present. This especially distressed the caucus members. “The BIA seems to justify the discrimination and surprisingly cites this as a reason” to recognize the tribe, the CBC’s letter stated.
The state of Virginia has recognized the tribe Governor Terry McAuliffe has asked the federal government to do the same.
