Indian Policy, Indian Gaming, and the Future of Tribal Economic Development

Abstract

Throughout history federal policy initiatives to solve the "Indian problem" resulted in most of the Native Americans' resources that had worth being acquired by non-Indian society. The traditional concepts of sovereignty, dependence, and trust that underlie the policies have remained in place. In the past two and a half decades a number of tribes have utilized the policy concepts and the seemingly worthless resources, in most cases their reservation land, for tribal gaming economic development projects. This paper examines the relationships between the historical evolution of federal Indian policy, changes in definitions of resource worth, and the establishment and survival of Indian gaming for tribal economic development.