History > 2006 > USA > American-Indians (II)

Seminole Tribe of Florida

Buys Hard Rock

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 7, 2006
Filed at 8:24 a.m. ET
The New York Times

LONDON (AP) -- The Seminole Tribe of Florida is buying the Hard Rock business, including its massive collection of rock 'n' roll memorabilia, in a $965 million deal with British casino and hotel company Rank Group PLC, the tribe announced Thursday.

The Hard Rock business includes 124 Hard Rock Cafes, four Hard Rock Hotels, two Hard Rock Casino Hotels, two Hard Rock Live! concert venues and stakes in three unbranded hotels.

With it, the tribe acquires what is said to be the world's largest collection of rock memorabilia, some 70,000 pieces including Jimi Hendrix's Flying V guitar, one of Madonna's bustiers, a pair of Elton John's high-heeled shoes and guitars formerly owned by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Chuck Berry.

''This is a proud moment for the Seminole Tribe of Florida and for all Indian tribes,'' said Mitchell Cypress, chairman of the elected Tribal Council. ''It is also an opportunity for the Seminole Tribe to diversify its business operations and help a very successful company to achieve even greater growth.''

Cypress and Seminole Gaming Chief Executive James Allen said in a statement the tribe would work with Hard Rock International management to build on existing growth plans.

In addition to its two Seminole Hard Rock hotels & casinos, the Seminole Tribe owns and operates five other casinos in Florida. More than 90 percent of the tribe's budget now comes from gaming revenue.

Nearly 3,300 Seminole Indians live on and off reservations throughout Florida. Rank said it would keep the Hard Rock Casino in London but under the Rank Gaming brand.

''We have maximized the value of Hard Rock through this disposal following a thorough strategic review and competitive auction,'' said Rank Chief Executive Ian Burke.

The sale, which is subject to shareholder approval, is scheduled to be completed in March.

------

On the Net:

Seminole Tribe of Florida: http://www.seminoletribe.com

Rank Group: http://www.rank.com

Hard Rock: http://www.hardrock.com/

    Seminole Tribe of Florida Buys Hard Rock, 7.12.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Hard-Rock-Cafe-Seminole-Tribe.html

N.D. Tribe Barring Church Protesters

December 2, 2006
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:46 a.m. ET
The New York Times

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- A church group that protests at military funerals around the country will be barred from services for an American Indian soldier on a reservation, tribal officials say.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., planned to demonstrate at National Guard Cpl. Nathan Goodiron's funeral on Saturday at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

Church members say the deaths of soldiers are punishment from God for the country's tolerance of homosexuals.

Tribal leaders passed a resolution Friday that prohibits the group from protesting on the reservation, said Marcus Wells Jr., chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes.

''We will not tolerate any harassment that is intended to provoke ill feelings and violence,'' he said.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of the Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., pastor of Westboro Baptist, said her group planned to protest outside the reservation ''on public rights of way.''

''We don't get into anyone's private area,'' said Phelps-Roper, the church's attorney and its spokeswoman. ''We don't go on private land.''

Goodiron, 25, of Mandaree, known on the reservation as Young Eagle, was killed Thanksgiving Day in Afghanistan when a grenade struck his vehicle while he was on patrol. He was a member of the 1st Battalion of the North Dakota National Guard's 188th Air Defense Artillery.

Tribal officials said he was the first member of the Three Affiliated Tribes to be killed in the war on terror.

American and tribal flags are being flown at half staff on the reservation to honor Goodiron.

''We recognize and respect the right to free speech and the public's right to assemble, but we want everyone to know that the Three Affiliated Tribes, as a sovereign tribal government, has the right to regulate any person or persons who harass and show disrespectful conduct towards our members, within our boundaries,'' Wells said in a statement.

Wells said tribal police would prevent the protesters from coming on the reservation.

    N.D. Tribe Barring Church Protesters, NYT, 2.12.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Soldiers-Funeral-Protest.html

Border Fence Must Skirt Objections From Arizona Tribe

September 20, 2006
The New York Times
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

TOHONO O’ODHAM NATION, Ariz., Sept. 14 — The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on legislation to build a double-layered 700-mile-long fence on the Mexican border, a proposal already approved by the House.

If the fence is built, however, it could have a long gap — about 75 miles — at one of the border’s most vulnerable points because of opposition from the Indian tribe here.

More illegal immigrants are caught — and die trying to cross into the United States — in and around the Tohono O’odham Indian territory, which straddles the Arizona border, than any other spot in the state.

Tribal leaders have cooperated with Border Patrol enforcement, but they promised to fight the building of a fence out of environmental and cultural concerns.

For the Tohono O’odham, which means “desert people,” the reason is fairly simple. For generations, their people and the wildlife they revere have freely crossed the border. For years, an existing four-foot-high cattle fence has had several openings — essentially cattle gates — that tribal members use to visit relatives and friends, take children to school and perform rites on the other side.

“I am O’odham first, and American or Mexican second or third,” said Ramon Valenzuela, as he walked his two children to school through one gate two miles from his O’odham village in Mexico.

But the pushed-up bottom strands of the cattle fence and the surrounding desert littered with clothing, water jugs and discarded backpacks testify to the growth in illegal immigrant traffic, which surged here after a Border Patrol enforcement squeeze in California and Texas in the mid-1990’s.

Crossers take advantage of a remote network of washes and trails — and sometimes Indian guides — to reach nearby highways bound for cities across the country.

Tribal members, who once gave water and food to the occasional passing migrant, say they have become fed up with groups of illegal immigrants breaking into homes and stealing food, water and clothing, and even using indoor and outdoor electrical outlets to charge cellphones.

With tribal police, health and other services overwhelmed by illegal immigration, the Indians welcomed National Guard members this summer to assist the Border Patrol here. The tribe, after negotiations with the Department of Homeland Security, also agreed to a plan for concrete vehicle barriers at the fence and the grading of the dirt road parallel to it for speedier Border Patrol and tribal police access. The Indians also donated a parcel this year for a small Border Patrol substation and holding pen.

Tribal members, however, fearing the symbolism of a solid wall and concern about the free range of deer, wild horses, coyotes, jackrabbits and other animals they regard as kin, said they would fight the kind of steel-plated fencing that Congress had in mind and that has slackened the crossing flow in previous hot spots like San Diego.

“Animals and our people need to cross freely,” said Verlon Jose, a member of the tribal council representing border villages. “In our tradition we are taught to be concerned about every living thing as if they were people. We don’t want that wall.”

The federal government, the trustee of all Indian lands, could build the fence here without tribal permission, but that option is not being pressed because officials said it might jeopardize the tribe’s cooperation on smuggling and other border crimes.

“We rely on them for cooperation and intelligence and phone calls about illegal activity as much as they depend on us to respond to calls,” said Chuy Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in Tucson, who described overall relations as “getting better and better.”

The Tohono number more than 30,000, including 14,000 on the Arizona tribal territory and 1,400 in Mexico. Building a fence would impose many challenges, apart from the political difficulties.

When steel fencing and other resources went up in California and Texas, migrant traffic shifted to the rugged terrain here, and critics say more fencing will simply force crossers to other areas without the fence. Or under it, as evidenced by the growth in the number of tunnels discovered near San Diego.

The shift in traffic to more remote, treacherous terrain has also led to hundreds of deaths of crossers, including scores on tribal land here.

The effort to curtail illegal immigration has proved especially difficult on the Tohono O’odham Nation, whose 2.8 million acres, about the size of Connecticut, make it the second largest in area.

Faced with poverty and unemployment, an increasing number of tribal members are turning to the smuggling of migrants and drugs, tribal officials say.

Just this year, the tribal council adopted a law barring the harboring of illegal immigrants in homes, a gesture to show it is taking a “zero tolerance” stand, said the tribal chairwoman, Vivian Juan-Saunders.

Two members of Ms. Juan-Saunders’s family have been convicted of drug smuggling in the past several years, and she said virtually every family had been touched by drug abuse, smuggling or both.

Sgt. Ed Perez of the tribal police said members had been offered $400 per person to transport illegal immigrants from the tribal territory to Tucson, a 90-minute drive, and much more to carry drugs.

The Border Patrol and tribal authorities say the increase in manpower and technology is yielding results. Deaths are down slightly, 55 this year compared with 62 last year, and arrests of illegal immigrants in the Border Patrol sectors covering the tribal land are up about 10 percent.

But the influx of agents, many of whom are unfamiliar with the territory or Tohono ways, has brought complaints that the agents have interfered with tribal ceremonies, entered property uninvited and tried to block members crossing back and forth.

Ms. Juan-Saunders said helicopters swooped low and agents descended on a recent ceremony, apparently suspicious of a large gathering near the border, and she has complained to supervisors about agents speeding and damaging plants used for medicine and food.

Some traditional and activist tribal members later this month are organizing a conference among eight Indian nations on or near the border to address concerns here and elsewhere.

“We are in a police state,” said Michael Flores, a tribal member helping to organize the conference. “It is not a tranquil place anymore.”

Mr. Rodriguez acknowledged the concerns but said agents operated in a murky world where a rush of pickups from a border village just might be tribal members attending an all-night wake, or something else.

“Agents make stops based on what they see,” he said. “Sometimes an agent sees something different from what tribal members or others see.”

Agents, he added, are receiving more cultural training, including a new cultural awareness video just shot with the help of tribal members.

“Our relations have come a long way” in the past decade, he said.

Mr. Valenzuela said several agents knew him and waved as he traveled across the border, but others have stopped him, demanding identification. Once, he said, he left at home a card that identifies him as a tribal member and an agent demanded that he go back into Mexico and cross at the official port of entry in Sasabe, 20 miles away.

“I told him this is my land, not his,” said Mr. Valenzuela, who was finally allowed to proceed after the agent radioed supervisors.

Mr. Valenzuela said he would not be surprised if a big fence eventually went up, but Ms. Juan-Saunders said she would affirm the tribe’s concerns to Congress and the Homeland Security department. She said she would await final word on the fence and its design before taking action.

Members of Congress she has met, she said, “recognize we pose some unique issues to them, and that was really what we are attempting to do, to educate them to our unique situation.”

The House last week approved a Republican-backed bill 238 to 138 calling for double-layer fencing along a third of the 2,000-mile-long border, roughly from Calexico, Calif., to Douglas, Ariz.

There is considerable support for the idea in the Senate, although President Bush’s position on the proposal remains uncertain. The Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff, has expressed doubts about sealing the border with fences.

    Border Fence Must Skirt Objections From Arizona Tribe, NYT, 20.9.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/washington/20fence.html?hp&ex=1158811200&en=73ed85588ac12201&ei=5094&partner=homepage

In Shadow of 70’s Racism, Recent Violence Stirs Rage

September 17, 2006
The New York Times
By DAN FROSCH

FARMINGTON, N.M. — The memory of 1974 still hangs heavily over this troubled New Mexico town, like a bad spirit drifting down from the sandpaper mesas and scrub-speckled hillsides.

That was the year the bodies of three Navajo men were found in nearby Chokecherry Canyon, burned and bludgeoned. The three white high school students charged in their killings were sent not to prison but to reform school.

The violence and mild sentences incited marches by Navajos through Farmington’s streets and exposed tensions between them and the town’s largely white residents. The United States Commission on Civil Rights eventually investigated and found widespread mistreatment and prejudice against Navajos.

Now, more than three decades later, Navajo leaders here are again calling for federal intervention.

On June 4, the police said, three white men beat a Navajo man, William Blackie, 46, and shouted racial slurs at him after asking him to buy beer for them. The men were charged with kidnapping, robbery and assault, and are being prosecuted under the state hate crimes law, which allows for longer sentences.

Six days later, a white Farmington police officer killed a Navajo man, Clint John, 21, after a struggle in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The police said Mr. John had assaulted his girlfriend and attacked the officer — grabbing his baton and moving aggressively toward him — before the officer shot Mr. John four times. Mr. John had a history of violence, the police said.

Mr. John’s family says he did not have the baton when he was shot and is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against city officials, the Police Department and the officer.

The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, which investigated Mr. John’s death, concluded that the shooting was justified. But after an outcry from Navajo Nation officials, the United States Justice Department is reviewing the matter to determine if a federal inquiry is necessary.

Both events have rocked this commercial hub of about 42,000 residents on the eastern edge of the Navajo Nation. After Mr. John’s shooting, the Navajo Council allocated $300,000 to study racial violence in the 11 towns that border Navajo land and to finance the John family’s lawsuit.

On Sept. 2, amid growing unease, Navajo leaders organized a march they said drew 1,000 participants. The march snaked along Highway 64, which leads to the Navajo community of Shiprock.

“We marched to memorialize the people that have died because of racial violence here,” said Duane Yazzie, president of the Shiprock chapter of the Navajo Nation. “This was an outlet for people who are frustrated and angry.”

Similar marches 32 years ago protested the severe, sometimes violent treatment of Navajos, like the practice of beating drunken Navajos passed out on Farmington’s streets.

In 1975, the Civil Rights Commission released “The Farmington Report: A Conflict of Cultures,” which described widespread prejudice against American Indians in Farmington and said they had suffered in almost every area from injustice and maltreatment.

These days, Farmington is no longer the Selma, Ala., of the Southwest, as some derisively called it then. The town has more Indians — about 17 percent of its residents, compared with less than 10 percent in the mid-1970’s. The Civil Rights Commission, revisiting Farmington in 2004, found marked progress.

Mayor Bill Standley cited improvements including the creation of a citizen police advisory committee, an intertribal service organization and a Navajo behavioral health center. Mayor Standley categorized this year’s violence as isolated.

“When these things happen, we still have to be concerned, and we have to listen,” he said. “We have thousands of interactions between people in Farmington where nothing happens. But when things do go wrong, the culprit is usually alcohol. For the most part, it’s not racism that drives Farmington’s problems today, it’s alcohol.”

Indeed, a study this year by the Police Department showed that most crimes against Indians in Farmington were committed by Indians.

Police Chief Mike Burridge said the 12 Indians among the 124 officers on his force had supported the department after Mr. John’s shooting.

“They told me they wished it was a Native American officer that was involved,” said Mr. Burridge, adding that his officers underwent cultural sensitivity training that specifically addressed Navajo issues.

But Larry Emerson, chairman of the New Mexico Indian Education Advisory Council, said white residents had not absorbed the history of Indian subjugation and its psychological and social effects.

“The bias, the unfairness, this has been going on all along,” said Mr. Emerson, who is Navajo. “Our people have suffered intergenerational trauma. They’re so numb to it, they can’t feel own their feelings anymore.”

Racial violence — like the bludgeoning death in 2000 of a 36-year-old Navajo woman by two white men — still occurs, if less frequently. Mr. Emerson and Mr. Yazzie said many crimes against Navajos went unreported.

“We’ve become so accustomed to our treatment by the Anglo community, we just accept it as normal,” said Mr. Yazzie, who was shot by a white hitchhiker in 1978 and lost an arm in the attack.

Mr. Yazzie said he believed outsiders, new to Farmington and its complicated racial dynamic, were to blame for the upswing in violence. He said he considered Mr. John’s shooting unjustified and wanted the federal government to intervene, as it did in the 1970’s. Other tribal leaders agree.

“We’ve come a long way since 1974, but sometimes it takes the feds to move things in the right direction, said Joe Shirley Jr., the president of the Navajo Nation. “Otherwise, it doesn’t get done.”

A stroll down Main Street, lined with antique shops and Navajo art galleries, reveals familiar divisions.

“The majority of Navajos are good people,” said Joann Carney, a white saleswoman at a clothing shop. “But a few give them a bad name.”

“Navajos get a lot of looks walking down the streets here,” said Patrick John, an American Indian from Shiprock. “There’s a lot of tension here. This is a border town.”

For George Arthur, a Navajo Nation delegate who lives near Farmington, the problems are escalating. A few years ago, Mr. Arthur said, his son was beaten by white youths who tried unsuccessfully to set him on fire. Mr. Arthur said no one was charged in the crime.

“The Navajo are a proud people,” he said. “We’ve learned to survive, and we can tolerate certain aspects of life. But not when it comes to our dignity.”

    In Shadow of 70’s Racism, Recent Violence Stirs Rage, NYT, 17.9.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/us/17navajo.html

Bill Would Aid Cemeteries for Indian Veterans

September 3, 2006
The New York Times
By HOLLI CHMELA
 

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 — Traditionally, when American Indians are killed in battle, their remains are returned to their tribal lands for burial.

But for the families of the many Indians who join the United States military, death brings a difficult choice: The veterans can be buried in a national veterans’ cemetery with fellow comrades in arms. Or they can be buried close to home on tribal land.

There is no way to do both.

The Native American Veterans Cemetery Act would change that.

Representative Tom Udall, the New Mexico Democrat who wrote the bill, said it would authorize states to provide grants financed by the Department of Veterans Affairs for the development or improvement of veterans’ cemeteries on tribal land. At present, tribal governments are not eligible for department money.

In June, Mr. Udall’s measure was unanimously approved by the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Both the House and the Senate included it in comprehensive veterans’ bills approved last month. The next step is for those bills to be reconciled by a conference committee after Congress returns in September.

Nearly 20,000 people classified as Native American/Alaskan Native are serving in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, according to the Defense Department’s most recent tally, from December 2005. By the end of 2006, there will be an estimated 181,361 Native American veterans, according to the V.A. The National Native American Veterans Association estimates that 22 percent of Native Americans 18 years or older are veterans.

“This is about recognizing that it’s not just states that have rights — tribes, too, should have rights,” Mr. Udall said in a recent interview.

There are 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States. New Mexico alone has 22 tribal reservations, and the population of Mr. Udall’s district is 19 percent Indian.

Explaining the importance of being buried close to home, Thomas Berry, a Navy veteran and a founder of the two-year-old National Native American Veterans Association, said tribes have sacred ceremonies and rituals to honor the dead and ease passage into the next life.

“If a Native American is buried in a national cemetery, a lot of the rituals cannot be performed because of coding restrictions and regulations,” Mr. Berry said. “So it’s important to us to have a place on tribal land to bury our veterans.”

Leo Chischilly, 57, the department manager for the Department of Navajo Veterans Affairs in the Navajo capital, Window Rock, Ariz., said having veterans’ cemeteries on tribal land was a matter of practicality as well as tradition.

“The Navajo Nation would like to bury their loved ones within the four sacred mountains on Navajo land,” Mr. Chischilly said. “But the closest veterans’ cemetery is in Santa Fe, N.M., four hours’ drive from Window Rock. Some families visit the grave sites on Veterans Day or Memorial Day, but most people would prefer something closer to home.”

Some reservations have cemeteries dedicated to veterans, but they are maintained and paid for by the tribal organization or volunteers, not by the V.A.

Fort Defiance Veterans Cemetery in Arizona is one such example. It is full with more than 300 graves of Navajo veterans. Ten acres have been set aside in Chinle, Ariz., for a new veterans’ cemetery, Mr. Chischilly said, but money is needed.

“Hopefully if President Bush signs the legislation we can submit a proposal to get a veterans’ cemetery on the Navajo Nation,” Mr. Chischilly said. “We’ll be able to provide the land, but we will have to get other sources of funding for the operational costs.”

    Bill Would Aid Cemeteries for Indian Veterans, NYT, 3.9.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/washington/03cemetery.html

Tribes Call for Removal of Dams That Block Journey of Salmon

August 3, 2006
The New York Times
By WILLIAM YARDLEY

SEATTLE, Aug. 2 — Indian tribes along the Klamath River rallied in Portland on Wednesday for the removal of four hydroelectric dams that block salmon from spawning in their historic habitat upriver, and they said they intended to pressure the governors of Oregon and California to help push for removing the dams.

The Yurok and Karuk tribes in California and the Klamath tribes of Oregon also said public comments by Bill Fehrman, the new president of PacifiCorp, the power company that owns the dams on the Klamath, reflected new potential for a settlement in one of the most enduring disputes at the nexus of fishing, farming and power supply in the Northwest.

Mr. Fehrman, in a statement released Wednesday, said: “We have heard the tribes’ concerns. We are not opposed to dam removal or other settlement opportunities as long as our customers are not harmed and our property rights are respected.”

While the tribes cast the statement as signaling a shift, Dave Kvamme, a spokesman for the company, said Mr. Fehrman’s statement, in a news release timed to coincide with the rally, was simply his first public comments reflecting a longstanding company policy.

He said that Mr. Fehrman, who became president this year, when PacifiCorp was bought by MidAmerican Holdings Company, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, has been frequently meeting with tribal leaders and that “he and the tribes have connected on some level.”

Craig Tucker, a spokesman for the Karuk tribe, which has about 3,400 members, said the tribes intended to put pressure on Gov. Theodore R. Kulongoski of Oregon and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California to find ways to pay for removing the dams, providing power from other sources and restoring fish habitat along the river, which begins in southern Oregon and meets the Pacific Ocean in Northern California.

Mike Carrier, Mr. Kulongoski’s natural resources policy director, is to meet with tribal leaders on Thursday. Mr. Carrier said the governor favored positions of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, both of which say PacificCorp must provide some form of passage for salmon above the dams. The National Marine Fisheries Service specifically says dams should be removed to make that happen, Mr. Carrier said.

Removing the dams and restoring the river for fish would be enormously expensive, Mr. Carrier said, and would “really need significant federal support.” He said he knew of no reliable estimate of the costs. He said he did not view Mr. Fehrman’s comments on Wednesday as a breakthrough, “especially with the caveat of ‘as long as our customers are not harmed and our property rights are respected.’ In other words, don’t ask us to bear the costs.”

    Tribes Call for Removal of Dams That Block Journey of Salmon, NYT, 3.8.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/us/03fish.html

American Indians protest biker rally nearing sacred site

Updated 8/1/2006 10:31 AM ET
USA TODAY
By Stu Whitney

STURGIS, S.D. — Once a year, amid the hammering August heat, this Black Hills hamlet becomes a bikers' paradise by hosting the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally — a weeklong celebration of leather, bikes and beer that draws as many as 500,000 riders. That's in a town of 6,400 in a state of only 776,000 people.

It's also a tradition for local critics to decry the increasing size and commercialism of the 66-year-old event, which once again will congest highways and hotels (and jails) when rally week starts Monday.

This summer's clamor is louder and more emotional, however, mainly because of a clash that pits Native American heritage against chrome-and-steel capitalism.

The battle is being waged over Bear Butte, a mountain 6 miles outside Sturgis that the Plains Indians have long considered sacred. Indians from across the USA are gathering today for a four-day summit, and protests — including efforts to deflect biker traffic from the site — are planned.

With a trend toward open-air biker bars and concert venues, the rally has crept closer to the butte. This summer, construction began about 2 miles north of the mountain on a 600-acre campground billed as the "world's biggest biker bar." The camp is within sight of where Native Americans gather to fast and pray.

"In the past, all the partying was done near town, but now they're going to surround our sacred mountain and desecrate it, drink on it, and leave their trash when they go back to where they came from," says Vic Camp, 31, a Lakota from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Tempers flared last August, when Arizona entrepreneur Jay Allen announced plans to build the giant biker bar and entertainment complex on Highway 79.

Camp and other Native Americans have gathered on tribal land north of the butte to protest the granting of beer and liquor licenses to Allen and other property owners. They claim that rally-related noise disturbs the sanctity of a spiritual place whose past visitors included Red Cloud, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.

The protesters, joined by some area ranchers, are requesting a 5-mile "buffer zone" around Bear Butte, a state park where buffalo roam freely and colorful pieces of cloth hang from trees to symbolize expressions of prayer.

"Just imagine if they told all the Christians in America, 'You guys can't go to church ... until we're done partying,' " says Camp, who is joined by about 100 other Native Americans, with more on the way for the summit and protest. "This mountain that you see here is a sacred altar — it's our church, school, and hospital all in one," he said. "We have men up on the hill right now who are fasting and praying, and they have to listen to cement trucks driving by and the pounding of hammers."

Much of the rancor is directed toward Allen, the outspoken owner of the famed Broken Spoke Saloon in Sturgis. He first wanted to call his new complex "Sacred Ground," complete with tepees and an 80-foot Indian statue.

Allen abandoned those ideas and changed the name to Sturgis County Line after criticism from Indian groups. He hasn't backed down on his vision, with future plans calling for 150,000 square feet of asphalt and an amphitheater to seat 30,000 concert-goers.

"I get death threats on a weekly basis," said Allen, who first attended the Sturgis rally as a leather gloves vendor in 1986.

"But I have been nothing but respectful to the Native Americans, and I tried to use this as a tool to enlighten people about their lifestyle. Their tradition isn't going away, but ours isn't either." Allen's new venue will consist this year of about 100 RV sites, and crews are working feverishly to finish a bar, vending and music areas before the rally begins. "This isn't a five-star restaurant," said Allen, who plans to travel to the rally from Phoenix in a 1954 Greyhound double-decker bus. "As long as I've got ice-cold beer and good music, we'll be OK."

A group of local volunteers, including Native Americans, called the Bear Butte International Alliance is promoting a "Don't Ride 79" campaign, urging bikers not to travel on Highway 79.

"We probably will stop the traffic from going on this road, but we're going to do it in a peaceful and respectful way," Camp said. "We're not against the bikers, and we're not against the Sturgis rally."

Meade County Sheriff Ron Merwin offered a note of caution about protesters trying to stop traffic.

"I wouldn't say we're expecting anything more than the normal rally concerns," Merwin said. "But if they start backing up traffic on Highway 79, those bikers are not going to be happy."

Camp insisted that if there's any violent action, it won't be initiated by Native Americans gathered at Bear Butte.

"The elders instructed us to go about this in a very peaceful way," Camp said. "They asked us to come here with our pipes and our sacred eagle feathers and staffs to bring many nations together.

"If it is provoked, it will be provoked by the other side — by disrespectful bikers coming through and hollering at us and spitting at us, like they have done at other protests."

    American Indians protest biker rally nearing sacred site, UT, 1.8.2006, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-31-indians-bikers_x.htm

US tribal gambling revenue rose to $23 bln in '05

Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:11 AM ET
Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Gambling revenue at American Indian casinos rose more than 15 percent to nearly $23 billion last year, narrowing the gap with commercial casinos in Nevada and other states, according to a study released on Tuesday.

Growth is driven by gambling's increasing popularity, the introduction of new casinos and games, and more non-gambling attractions at the resorts, according to the report by Alan Meister, an economist with the Analysis Group.

U.S. Indian gaming is now more than three-quarters the size of its commercial non-Indian counterpart, up from two-thirds in 2004 and 50 percent in 2001.

Thirty states have tribal casinos, while just 11 states have allowed commercial casinos. Recent legislation legalizing commercial gambling in states like Pennsylvania and Florida is likely to raise that total.

Last year, California again had the highest tribal casino revenue, followed by Connecticut, Arizona, Oklahoma and Minnesota. The top two states accounted for nearly 42 percent of total tribal gambling revenue.

There were 227 tribes operating 420 gaming facilities in 30 states last year, according to the report.

Last year's 15.6 growth rate for Indian gaming surpassed the 14.6 percent rate seen in 2004.

It also continued to outstrip growth at commercial casinos and racetracks with slot machines, which saw combined gambling revenue, including hurricane-related losses in Louisiana and Mississippi, rise 5.2 percent to $32.7 billion last year, according to the report.

The strongest growth was seen in electronic bingo-style machines, called Class II, which are popular in states that do not allow Las Vegas-style slots.

"The future of Indian gaming as a whole remains bright," Meister said in the report. "While proposed legislative and regulatory changes could negatively impact new gaming land acquisitions and Class II gaming, they are not likely to slow down growth from existing Class III (slot machine) gaming."

Total tax revenue from Indian gaming was $6.9 billion in 2005, the report said. When factoring in revenue sharing of $913 million, the gross fiscal impact to state and local governments was $8 billion.

    US tribal gambling revenue rose to $23 bln in '05, R, Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:11 AM ET.