Part 1 - Look Who's Cashing In At Indian Casinos - Hint: It's not the people who are supposed to benefit
Wheel of Misfortune
Who Gets the Money
The Moneymen
The Great Land Rush
Whose Tribe Is It, Anyway?

Part 2 - Playing the Political Slots - How Indian casino interests have learned the art of buying influence in Washington

Short Articles

Facts

At the heart of the matter is a battle over gaming spoils that is pitting brother against brother, cousin against cousin, father against daughter.  Tribal leaders have traditionally had wide leeway in admitting members.  But now the stakes are higher.  Entry can mean the difference between a life of poverty and one of unimagined wealth.  But every new tribe member means a smaller cut of the casino profits for those already in.  So Indian country abounds with tales of tribes disenrolling legitimate members, refusing to let them in or changing their status - all to deny them a share of the pot.

Kathy Lewis is one of those left out.  Her grandfather was born and raised at Table Mountain and was the tribe's chief in the 1950s.  Lewis spent part of her childhood on the rancheria, living in a shack.  later she and other family members, like many of their tribe, left to live in nearby towns or work or got ot school.  none of her immediate family owned property on the reservation when it was restored in 1983.  the tribe is using that as an excuse to deny her membership, just as it has done with others.

The result is two Table Mountain tribes: an affluent one that lives on the rancheria and a poor one that lives outside it.  Those who get casino checks own expensive houses, drive new cars and have no money worries.  Those who don't, live in shacks, trailers or cramped apartments, drive old cars and are buried in debt.  Lewis lives off the reservation in a a two-room trailer with her daughter, her mother and occasionally o ne of her three brothers.  She doesn't get a penny from the casino profits, and both the tribal council that controls it and ordinary  members have turned their backs on her.  "It's disheartening because they're supposed to be your relatives," she says.  The final blow came last year, when the council finally admitted Lewis' father, son of the former chief.  (Tribal members declined to talk to Time.) Since then, Lewis says, her father has cut off all communication with her and her brothers, none of whom are members.  "It's all because of greed, selfishness, setting them apart," she says.

Laura L. Wass, who heads the Fresno branch of the American Indian Movement, has been working with families trying to obtain tribe membership.  She says the 1983 court order restoring the tribe declared that all those on tribal rolls in 1958 should have their status restored.  The tribe's constitution holds similar criteria.  But, says Wass, "they still will not let them in."  The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) says it's up to the tribes to decide who is a member.  So no one is enforcing the 1983 court ruling.  Wass says the BIA's refusal to act has left many on the outside of the tribe with nowhere to turn.