Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2002-01-25

              INDEX
News Around Indian Country 2
Commentary/Editorials/Voices 4
Smoke Signals of Upcoming Events      5
Classifieds 6- 7
MTC headquarters
in operation
pg3
King's Musings
Good Golly,
Miss Granny
pg4
Student assault
sparks fears of racial
polarization in
Blackduck
pg 1
Education, health, culture:
Racial attitudes increase
burden for American
Indian children
pg 1
Commentary
Benjamin's
State of the
Band Address
out of sync
pg4
Casinos, crime and community costs
VOICE        OF
T   H   E
P   E   O
L   E
by Clara NiiSka
Seven gambling bills are
pending in the Minnesota Legislature, including Sen. Doug
Johnson's SF 1841 to establish
a Twin Cities casino
operated by the Minnesota State Lottery and
splitting the profits
with Minnesota Indian
tribes.
The ostensible purpose of the various
gambling bills is to
raise money.
Government-owned
gambling enterprises,
whether Indian casinos
or a state-owned casino, seem like a good way for
the government to raise money.
No new taxes, just "vending
machines"
(slot machines) selling the
hope of
"winning
big" and        	
pouring
revenue into state and tribal coffers. "If you don't want to
spend money on gambling,
don't gamble," we are told.
Voluntary contributions subsidizing the government is a wonderful idea ... isn't it?
The National Gambling Impact Study Commission
(NIGSC) was established by
Congress in 1996, and released
its official reports three years
later. NIGSC's website, last revised in August 1999, is still
online at http://www.ngisc.gov.
NIGSC recommended a national moratorium of the expansion of gambling, and more
study of the costs, benefits and
effects of gambling.
There have been subsequent
studies of the effects of gambling, including articles published last summer in the aca
demic journal Managerial and
Decision Economics, which devoted a full issue to consideration of gambling and its consequences.
David B. Mustard
Earl L. Grinds
Economists found that
'the costs of casinos are
at least 1.9 times greater
than the benefits'
The academic paper, "Business Profitability versus Social
Profitability: Evaluating Industries with Externalities, the
Case of Casinos," was co-
authored by
economists Earl
^^^^^^^^ L. Grinols and
David B. Mustard. Using an econometric
cost-benefit analysis, these
economists found that, "the
costs of casinos are at least 1.9
times greater than the benefits."
In other words, a dollar worth
of casino profits—and other social benefits—costs    	
taxpayers at
least $1.90:
in "cost-cre- ^^^^^^^^^^
ating activi-
ties such as crime, suicide, and
bankruptcy," and in the expensive social problems engendered by 'problem and pathological' gamblers.
Casinos create crime
In an earlier paper, "Casinos,
Crime, and Community Costs,"
Grinols, Mustard, and their fellow economist Cynthia Hunt
Dilley concluded that, "casinos
"Gambling is a
society's point of view."
increase crime in their host
counties and that crime spills
over into neighboring counties
to increase crime in border areas."
Grinols, Mustard, and Dilley
analyzed county crime rates for
every U.S. county between
1977 and 1996. "Casinos create
crime, rather than attracting] it
from elsewhere," they found.
In 1996, the last year for which
statistics were available at the
time of their study, "casinos accounted for 10.3 percent of violent crime, and 7.7 percent of
property crime in casino counties." Auto theft is the crime
that increased the most as a result of casinos; robberies increased by 20%, despite increased expenditures by law enforcement agencies after the casinos opened.
The data shows a time-lag between casino opening and
higher crime rates, which typically begin a few years after casinos open and increase over
time. The researchers theorized
that much of that time-lag reflected the addictive processes
of 'problem and pathological
gamblers,' who "according to
clinical research, take two or
three years to exhaust alternative resources before they commit crime."
    "Casinos, Crime,
loser from     and Community
web page: www.press-on.net
Native  *~
American
PPGSS Ojibwe News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.   Copyright, Native American Press, 2002
Founded in 1988
Volume 14 Issue 8
January 25, 2002
Costs" is posted
online at http://
www.cba.uiuc.edu/
grinols/Scribblings/Casinos-
Crime-15SEP00.pdf.
Press/ON contacted Earl
Grinols and David Mustard, and
asked them about their research.
Both economists said that their
published assessments of the
costs of casinos were "conservative," and that inclusion of
CASINO to page 8
Education, health, culture:
racial attitudes increase burden
for American Indian children
By Jean Pagano
The 2000 census lists 32,029
Minnesota children as American
Indian. Of this number, 20,607
were listed as only American Indian whereas the remaining
11,422 were listed as American
Indian and one or more other
races. These are the raw facts
presented in Minnesota KIDS
COUNT, provided by the
Children's Defense Fund of Minnesota. The fact of the matter is
that Native American children
struggle to maintain equilibrium
in the multiracial melting pot that
is Minnesota.
Part of the problems facing Indian children is one of negative
racial underpinnings. In a survey
of 800 Minnesota residents, 25%
of the respondents stated that all
American Indians are 'lazy'. If it
were not enough for children of
any color to work hard to succeed, it is an even greater burden
to overcome when one is
branded 'lazy'. American Indians were twice as likely to be
considered 'lazy' that their white
counter parts. Additionally, a
Twin Cities Area Study revealed
that 22% of respondents felt that
American Indians had a negative
impact on the community. Oddly
enough, of the 26 racially motivated bias crime incidents involving 65 children in year 2000,
only 4 Native .American children
were victimized.
Income disparity and the specter of poverty hang over the
heads of Native children. Free/
reduced price school lunches are
provided for certain families that
qualify. Currently, qualification
for the program is 185% of the
federal poverty line, which in
2001 was $32,650 for a family of
four. Out of the 17,887 Indian
students enrolled in school,
67.1%, or 11,999 qualified for
the free/reduced prices lunches.
Housing issues have an effect
on Native children. Among
homeless families with at least
one child, 10% of those families
are American Indian. There are
some unique situations where
state agencies and tribal organizations have teamed up to help
with some of the housing challenges that Native peoples face.
The Grand Portage Tribal Council discovered that there was not
enough affordable housing for
their employees. The Tribal
Council, with the assistance of
the Greater Minnesota Housing
Fund (GMHF) was able to create
two new fourplexes and six new
duplexes to address this issue. As
progressive as this joint effort
was, this is the exception and not
the rule.
Health issues affect Native
families from birth. Infant mortality rates among Native peoples
are the highest of any of the racial groups. The Infant Mortality
rate for American Indians is 14.0
per 1,000, almost three times as
high as among whites. The rates
of births to teens, aged 15-17, are
also quite high. For the year
1999,123 Indian teens, aged 15-
17, gave birth to children, yielding a rate of 62 births to teen per
1,000. While this number is the
highest among the various
groups, it is still almost 6 times
higher than similar measurements against whites.
Native children in the 6lh grade
CHILDREN to page 3
Assault sparks
fears of racial
polarization in
Blackduck
By Jeff Armstrong
The 8-day suspension of a 12th
grade wrestler for allegedly assaulting and breaking the arm of
a 7th grade Native student at
Blackduck High School drew
protests from an unlikely source.
Dozens of non-Native parents
commandeered a Jan. 20 school
board meeting in Blackduck to
decry the suspension of senior
wrestler Ryan Mistic, demanding
the Native youth, Isaiah RedDay,
face equal punishment, according
to reports in the Jan. 20
Blackduck American. The
weekly newspaper reported that
Mistic was charged with the juvenile equivalent of 3rd degree
assault.
RedDay's arm was fractured in
two spots in the Jan. 4 incident,
in which Mistic allegedly pursued his victim through the
school prior to the alleged assault
in the apparent belief that the 7th
grader spit on his car.
Mistic was booked and released without detention, according to the victim's mother.
"He was allowed to go to
school the next day," said Wanda
RedDay, expressing outrage at
the callousness of the school
board protesters, some of whom
attempted to make slanderous
public accusations against her
son.
Expressing fears of further racial polarization, RedDay said
Isaiah has already received
threats from non-Native students.
"My son said a group of 8 boys
walked past him, and as they did,
ASSAULT to page 3
Arizona racetracks lobby to compete with tribal casinos
in July after Arizona racetracks
won a federal lawsuit that declared
Indian gaming compacts illegal.
The members of the new Ari-
Associated Press
PHOENIX - Indian gambling
has endangered horse and greyhound tracks to the point where
slots are necessary for survival, according to a newly formed group
representing the tracks.
So four Arizona racetracks will
lobby the Legislature for the right
to install video gambling machines
in their clubhouses, reversing their
stand against seeking slot machines.
"We can't take the status quo. It
will be a slow death," said Jack
LaSota, a lobbyist for Tucson
Greyhound Park.
The tracks want to use video lottery terminals, which closely resemble slot machines but pay winners with a computerized paper
ticket redeemable for cash.
It would be the first spread of
Las Vegas-style gambling off the
Indian reservations in Arizona, and
could net the tracks up to S100
million a year in new revenues.
State government would also get
up to a $40 million cut of the action in the form of taxes.
But the idea is likely to meet stiff
resistance from Arizona's Indian
tribes, whose $1 billion casino industry was thrown into legal limbo
zona Racetrack Association - Turf
Paradise, Tucson Greyhound Park
and American Greyhound Racing,
the company that owns both
Apache Greyhound Park and
Phoenix Greyhound Park - were
listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The racetracks insisted at the
time that they were not on a quest
to get slot machines for themselves.
ARIZONA to page 3
"Misfortunes," an oil
painting by Ojibwe
artist Jim Denomie
(pictured below), is a
conceptual
abstraction about
influence as the six
blue women portray
intrigue, realization,
rejection and wisdom.
Wider gaming to be debated
By Patrick Sweeney
Pioneer Press
A budget deficit and a task-force
vote last week urging construction
of two stadiums have raised the
stakes this year in Minnesota's
long-running debate over legalized
gambling.
State-owned casinos, slot machines in bars, and Las Vegas-style
sports betting are proposed in bills
that legislators will consider when
they return to session Jan. 29.
Enactment of any major expansion of gambling is still less than an
even bet, but the odds in favor of
passage are increasing, legislative
leaders say.
Several developments signal that
gambling is likely to be one of the
big issues of the session:
The state's projected $1.95 billion
deficit means some lawmakers are
likely to look to gaming profits to
help pay for such state services as
schools and roads; others see gam
bling money as the only acceptable
avenue to finance stadiums for the
Minnesota Twins and Vikings.
— Senate Majority Leader Roger
Moe, long a defender of the monopoly that Minnesota's Indian
tribes enjoy on casino gambling,
now says he is willing to consider a
gaming partnership that would produce profits for the state and for
northern tribes, including two in his
district, that largely have been left
out of a 20-year boom in Indian
gambling.
— Gov. Jesse Ventura, who has
often talked about taxing illegal
sports bookmaking, is exploring
how Minnesota might get around a
federal ban on state-sanctioned
sports betting and use the profits to
pay for stadium construction.
So far, none of the major policymakers at the Capitol has talked
publicly about using gambling
money to solve the deficit. But in
October, New York legislators filled
part of a $9 billion budget hole by
voting to negotiate revenue-shanng
agreements with Indian tribes for
six new casinos and to authorize
slot machines at five racetracks.
"In a deficit, it's tlie nature of
politicians to try to find easy ways
to raise money," said Sen. John
Hottinger of Mankato, the assistant
leader of the Democratic-Farmer-
Labor majority in the Minnesota
Senate. "And it's easier to force the
pain on gamblers than on the general public."
Rep. Tony Kielkucki of Lester
Prairie, an assistant leader of the
House Republican majority who is
sponsoring a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow
the state to license a private company to open two metro-area casinos, said his goal is to build two stadiums without resorting to tax
money.
GAMING to page 5
Federal judge stymies attempts to
set up high-stakes pulltab operation
on Alaska Native land
By Tom Kizzia
Anchorage Daily News
The handful of Alaska tribes
seeking federal recognition for
high-stakes gambling has been
dealt another setback in federal
court. A federal judge in Washington, D.C, has upheld the National Indian Gaming
Commission's decision to deny a
permit to the Native Village of
Barrow for a pulltab operation
that violates state gambling limits.
The judge said Barrow's tribal
council had failed to show it exercised the necessary governmental power over the town site
lot where the big-prize pulltabs
are being sold. But the Dec. 31
decision by U.S. District Judge
Richard Roberts leaves the door
open for Barrow to try again to
establish its authority.
A tribal victory in the case
would be an important early step
toward tribal casino gambling in
Alaska. Other hurdles would remain, however, including agreement from the state. The court's
decision leaves uncertain the future of at least two tribal gaming
operations running in Alaska
without state or federal permits.
A third group, the Kenaitze
tribe, has been prompted by the
decision to drop — at least for
now — a costly effort to establish federal gaming on a Native
allotment in Kenai. "The tribe
has decided not to pursue it at
this time," Kenaitze executive director Rita Smagge said. The
Kenai tribe had a bid similar to
Barrow's pending before the National Indian Gaming Commission.
The Barrow tribal organization
PULLTAB to page 3
Tracks to seek
video slots - effort
reverses longtime
gaming stance
By Tom Zoellner
The Arizona Republic
Four Arizona racetracks will
lobby the Legislature for the right
to install video gambling machines
in their clubhouses, reversing their
stand against seeking slot machines.
A newly formed group, the Arizona Racetrack Association, says
that competition from the state's 19
Indian casinos has endangered the
horse- and greyhound-racing industry to the point where slot machines are necessary for survival.
"Situations change," said Jack
LaSota, a lobbyist for Tucson
Greyhound Park, explaining the
shift in position. "If you'd have
asked George W. Bush seven
months ago if he'd be invading
TRACKS to page 5