Circle the Wagons, again

The CCA attempts to whip up fear against the Narragansetts

Narragansett Indians welcome Roger Williams in 1636.
All downhill from there

By Will Collette

Throughout their histories, it has been an article of faith for the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) and its big brother, the RI Statewide Coalition (RISC), that anything good for the Narragansett Indian Tribe is bad for the white residents of Charlestown.

Case in point – the CCA’s latest circle-the-wagons bugle call over a statement in President Barack Obama’s federal budget that affirms the duty of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to take lands in trust for the benefit of a local tribe.

Charlestown's nightmare

This budget statement takes direct aim at the US Supreme Court’s bizarre Carcieri v. Salazar decision that effectively stripped basic sovereignty rights from tribes that received federal recognition after 1934. This decision arose from the efforts of the Narragansetts to place a 31 acre parcel they owned off Route One into federal trust, a move the CCA and RISC saw as tantamount to building a Foxwoods-style Indian casino.

When Larry LeBlanc hinted he might be interested in selling his 81 acres – the current proposed site for his Whalerock wind farm – to the Tribe, that drove the CCA and RISC into hyperdrive.

So how much of the CCA’s alarmist rhetoric is real and how much is racist-tinged hyperbole?

Let’s first cover those parts of the CCA’s alarm that are true. It is true that the Supreme Court in Carcieri v. Salazar ruled not so much on deep Constitutional issues, but on what Congress intended in its 1934 legislation on Indian sovereignty. The court essentially said that Congress’s 1934 legislation was vague about whether tribes granted federal recognition after 1934 would get the same rights and privileges of tribes recognized before 1934.

As such, the Supremes’ decision can be reversed through legislation that clarifies Congress’s intent.

It is also true that you can legislate through insertions to the federal budget. My one and only experience in actually getting a federal law passed was done that way. I was director of the Citizens Coal Council in Washington, DC, and we got the Coalfields Water Protection Act into law as a budget rider. So, yes, I can attest that this part of the CCA alarm is true.

It is true that the Obama Administration intends to get a “Carcieri Fix” enacted.  They say so in their budget message. 

Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI)

But once you get past these facts, the rest is pure speculation. The President’s budget will not pass as submitted. It will be ripped to shreds in the Tea Party-controlled House of Representatives, which has primary jurisdiction over the budget. The “Carcieri Fix” could be stripped out in the House.

It could get put back in when the budget goes to the Senate. Two senior Senators, Democrat Daniel Akaka of Hawaii and Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, are determined advocates for the “Carcieri Fix.”

Maybe they’ll get the language in the budget on the Senate side. Maybe not. In the end, the House and Senate will fight over a final version of the budget. Like past years, the budget will be held hostage in the on-going ideological struggle that has made our federal government so dysfunctional. The “Carcieri Fix” will be an issue of negligible importance in those larger battles.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)

If the Carcieri Fix language makes it through that meat grinder, the President will certainly sign it. If it ever gets to his desk, which is by no means a foregone conclusion.

Already, Native American advocates are looking to Plan B, assuming the “Carcieri Fix” will not be enacted. Just days ago, former federal Representative Richard Pombo, a long-time advocate for Indian rights, recommended to the Mashpee Tribe and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick not to count on passage of a “Carcieri Fix.” Pombo suggested the state broker an alliance of several tribes who might partner on one of the three resort casino venues just approved by the Massachusetts legislature. 

But I think it’s important for Charlestown residents to take a deep breath and think about what the “Carcieri Fix” issue is really all about.

The CCA (and RISC) would have you believe that it’s OK to pretty much screw every Native American tribe in the country because we want to make 200% certain there won’t be an Indian casino in Charlestown.

The “Carcieri Fix” is very important to tribes all across the US including many who have no interest in building an Indian casino in Charlestown. There is quite a bit of legal research out there addressing why the Carcieri decision needs to be fixed, and how to do it. Click here for one prime example.

Second, the CCA and RISC would have you believe that removing the legal barrier created by the Carcieri v. Salazar decision will automatically result in that Indian casino. That is also far from a foregone conclusion.

Third, the CCA and RISC have persistently promoted their belief that every attempt by the Narragansetts to better their economic condition will lead inexorably to an Indian casino in Charlestown. In my opinion, that posture is stone racist.

The Narragansetts have made no secret of their interest in getting into the gaming business. They have tried for years to get approval for a casino. They came close when they made a deal with Bally’s and the town of West Warwick, but lost when the measure went before the voters. RISC campaigned against the ballot question, even though it would have taken the pressure off of Charlestown.

Last year, the Tribe tried it again by offering to take over Twin River in Lincoln when it looked like that slot parlor might go belly-up. They hoped to convert it into a full casino, but more than anything, they wanted to get in the gaming industry door.

Charlestown's hired gun to fight the tribe in all its
endeavors - "Injun Joe" Larisa

For reasons I still find baffling, Charlestown’s hired gun, our town’s Special Counsel for Indian Affairs “Injun Joe” Larisa, swung into action to nip the Tribe’s dealings with Gov. Chafee in the bud. If it was up to me, I would have fired Larisa on the spot – if the Narragansetts got Twin River, we would never have to worry about an Indian casino in Charlestown again. But, no, we can’t allow the Narragansetts to do anything to advance their interests.

Charlestown has paid Larisa almost $170,000 to fight the tribe.

So, let’s suppose the “Carcieri Fix” somehow stays in the President’s Budget and goes through the congressional meat grinder and comes out the other side intact. It goes to the President’s desk and he signs the budget with the Carcieri Fix in it.

That does not mean that construction on the Indian casino in Charlestown begins the following day.

The Department of Interior will have to conduct its usual rule-making process, which takes time.

Presuming that happens swiftly, then what? The odds are that the Narragansetts will ask the Bureau of Indian Affairs to take the land they own into trust.

Does that mean construction on the Indian Casino in Charlestown commences? Well, there are significant issues like money and logistics. A more likely scenario is that the tribe will try to acquire land elsewhere in Rhode Island where there is better road access – being more than 20 minutes off I-95 is not good for the gaming business. They would need enough land to accommodate a sizable resort casino. They would need a place that has the water resources to support such a facility.

They would need several billion dollars in financing. When the Narragansetts had their deal with Bally’s just a few years ago, the economy was a lot different. Money was easy to get and the gaming industry was booming. Not so much anymore.

Foxwoods nearly went bankrupt. Indeed, the New York Times and Forbes Magazine have reported just in the past 10 days that Foxwoods is "fighting for its life." 

A Rhode Island resort casino will be competing with the two well-established Indian casinos in Connecticut. Massachusetts is about to enter the gaming market in a big way by building three resort casinos and one slot parlor.

Rhode Island will probably allow one or both of our existing slot parlors to expand to full casino size, though probably not an actual full-service resort casino that can compete with the three likely to be built in Massachusetts, or the two existing casinos in Connecticut..

In the best of circumstances, the Narragansetts would be entering an already overloaded market very late in the game. Existing casinos have been having some serious financial troubles, some caused by the bad economy, some by bad decisions, and others caused by over-expansion.

The tough economics in the casino business will make the job of borrowing the money in a tight credit market even harder.

I don’t want an Indian casino in Charlestown any more than the most rabid anti-casino CCA or RISC follower. But I would also like our Narragansett neighbors to thrive.

I think it shames us all that we have not been able to reach an accommodation with the Tribe to work together for mutual interest. They have the right to live and to want a better life for themselves and their children. I think the years of hyperbolic anti-Indian rhetoric has left wounds that can only, at best, scar over and never heal.

The Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar was a bad decision that took a very narrowly defined legislative problem and blew it up into a blow against much of this country’s Native American population. A “fix” to that injustice does not have to mean the end of the world for Charlestown. I wish the CCA would reflect on the morality of their stance against the tribe and stop its campaign of bigotry and hate.

Finally, the best ways for Charlestown to protect itself from the dreaded Narragansett casino is to do two things - buy "LarryLand," Larry LeBlanc's 81 acres and potential casino site and second, make peace with the Tribe, reaching a working accommodation with them that respects their sovereignty and right to economic justice.