While disgraced lobbyist and Republican insider Jack Abramoff and his ilk go down in flames ? taking some prominent members of Congress with them ? it?s important to keep in mind that their tactics alsoimplicated a legitimate but sad form of commerce: Native American gaming.
Despite the significant downside of gambling, the reality is that on some reservations gaming revenues now exceed that of tribal mining and timber rights. Indeed, some Native American casinos have brought wealth to a people once strongly associated with poverty. Properly managed, these operations have positively impacted some reservations, improving health care, education and housing. We can bemoan gambling all we want, but at least the profits, in some cases, are wisely used.
And while most Americans bemoan influence peddling, it says a lot about our society that the descendants of the first true settlers now line up at the money trough like the rest of us, often getting burned in the process. Folks, it wasn?t Abramoff who made that so. He?s just the guy who reminded us once again how bad it can get.
In 1995, Abramoff, with the assistance of Republican Congressman Tom DeLay, helped his clients, the Choctaw Indians of Mississippi, defeat a bill intended to tax Indian casinos.
By 2001 Abramoff represented seven tribes. As part of the Bush administration?s 2001 transition team, he was alleged to have used his contacts in the United States Interior Department, which has statutory authority over matters concerning tribes, to leverage influence over tribal gaming issues.
Apparently, between 2000 and 2003, six Indian tribes gave Abramoff close to $80 million. This included money for arranging meetings between President George W. Bush and Chief Garza of the Kickapoo tribe of Texas and Chief Poncho of the Coushattas of Louisiana. Although it?s not clear exactly what occurred during these meetings, in Washington familiarity often breeds consent. In Abramoff?s case, it seems to have also opened up the floodgates to egregious fraud and fleecing.
Not only did Abramoff and his partners overbill their Native American clients,but in a classic case of conflict of interest, he covertly arranged lobbying designed to work against his clients? interests in order to force them to pay even more for him to “fix” ensuing problems. In this spiraling con game, lobbying becomes a form of snake oil ? claims to address one malady cause another. Millions of dollars disappeared as these tribes hoped for a cure.
In January, Abramoff plead guilty to three felony counts in connection with these incidents. He was also ordered to pay back $25 million to his clients, which at the time were mostly Native American tribes.
Undoubtedly, these tribes with gaming interests assumed that Abramoff had the kind of access ? the “juice” ? needed to gain an audience with top lawmakers in order to see through favorable legislation or incur special treatment. For this they paid a hefty sum, financially and ethically.
In many respects, the tribes are no different than defense contractors, major corporations, and all manner of for-profit entities trying to make a buck or protect the dollars they have.
Native Americans are no fools. They know that in 21st century America money buys access ? and success.
In the end, while Jack and his crew were guilty, we owe him a sort of perverse thanks for reminding us that this particular watering hole is poisoned.
If Native Americans can be conned like anybody else, it signals that in the field of lobbying there are few rules; the ones that exist are poorly enforced; and there is no limit to the amount of corruption that can be promulgated via cash-for-access.
If Abramoff had been around in the days of the Wild West, he might have been a screwy version of Little Big Man ? going from one side to the other, not because he?s confused, but because he knows he can take advantage and make a killing. This is grievous exploitation, no different than old fake doctors hawking poultices, tinctures, andcure-alls. We simply can?t afford to have it in our government anymore.
Jeffrey Ian Ross, Ph.D. is an associate professor, Division of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Policy, Fellow Center for Comparative and International Law, University of Baltimore. His latest book is “Native Americans and the Criminal Justice System.”
