Howard Arnett is an adjunct professor teaching Indian law at the University of Oregon Law School. Howard Arnett: “That’s the federal statute that sets out the whole structure of Indian gaming in the United States.” The following year, Congress responded by passing the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. That’s rooted in a 1987 US Supreme Court decision limiting states’ jurisdiction over tribal gambling. In this second part of our series “Going For Broke,” JPR finds that whether the project gets the go-ahead may depend on how officials at the Bureau of Indian Affairs interpret the fine print of laws and agreements that go back decades.įirst, some history … In the Northwest states and California, casinos can be operated only by Indian tribes and only on reservations or other Indian trust land. The Coquille Indian tribe’s controversial proposal to build a casino in Medford is facing its first major legal hurdle getting the federal government to grant the site trust status, making it Indian land.
