7.30.07By James P. Sweeney
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
SACRAMENTO – California's oldest and largest Indian gambling organization is in turmoil, with nongaming bands challenging the historic rule of wealthy tribes in what some say is an inevitable clash of the “haves and have-nots.”
A push by nongaming tribes for more power within the California Nations Indian Gaming Association prompted a prominent tribal leader to raise the question that has simmered for years: Should nongaming tribes even have a vote in an organization established to promote gambling?
Without changes in the organization's voting and dues structure – casino tribes largely bankroll the operation – Agua Caliente Chairman Richard Milanovich suggested his Palm Springs tribe may pull out, as it did five years ago during a previous mass exodus.
At least two other high-powered gaming tribes, Pechanga near Temecula and Morongo of eastern Riverside County, have been quietly weighing the same move as they grow increasingly frustrated with nongaming tribes' domination of the association's monthly meetings, a knowledgeable source said.
The departure of two or three big gaming tribes would leave a large hole in the organization's $1.2 million annual budget and could prompt others to follow suit. Tribes with large casinos pay up to $80,000 each in annual dues.
Some nongaming tribes say if their vote is taken away or marginalized, they also would have little reason to stay.
With Agua Caliente, Pechanga, Morongo and other prominent member tribes facing a ballot drive to overturn new gambling compacts worth billions, the discord could not come at a worse time.
"We're going through growning pains," said Anthony Miranda, chairman of the organization better known as CNIGA. “It's a large, diverse group with a lot of different interests. But the one thing I really appreciate . . . is we all respect each other.”
Kevin Siva, a leader of Los Coyotes, a remote tribe near Warner Springs that doesn't have a casino, suggested some nongaming tribes feel betrayed by the gaming tribes they stood with in the late 1990s, when all California tribes were fighting to legalize casino gambling.
“It just seems like we are becoming kind of castoffs,” Siva said.
Los Coyotes sought tribal support for its bid to develop an off-reservation casino, Siva said. Many big gaming tribes oppose the project, which has been embraced by the city of Barstow and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"This is something we are seeing across the nation, this division between gaming tribes, the haves and the have-nots basically," Siva said. "And a lot of it, unfortunately, seems to be based on the fact that they don't want the competition."
Founded in 1988, the California Nations Indian Gaming Association long has been a volatile mix of tribes, rich and poor, gaming and nongaming, from all over the state.
The organization bounced back from the abrupt departure of nearly 20 tribes, including at least a half-dozen big gaming tribes, during a similar internal uproar five years ago. But it never fully recovered. Gaming powerhouses such as Barona, Pala and Viejas of San Diego County left and never returned.
The association remains a political force that commands attention and respect in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. The organization has 65 members, 35 with casinos and 30 without. The organization historically has welcomed all federally recognized tribes without regard to their gaming status.
"This was something that had to happen," said David Quintana, political director of the rival California Tribal Business Alliance and a former CNIGA staffer. “This is an organization that is supposed to stand for an industry, yet half the people in the organization aren't involved in the industry.
"Now, I don't know whether that is good or bad, but it's not good for that organization."
Insiders say some of the association's latest troubles are rooted in the federal indictments of former Coyote Valley of Pomo Indians Chairwoman Priscilla Hunter and her son, Michael. Hunter and her son face charges stemming from the alleged misappropriation of tribal funds.
With trials approaching, Michael Hunter continues to serve as the association's secretary. Both he and his mother also hold positions on CNIGA's powerful, eight-member executive committee.
North Fork, a nongaming tribe from central California, has been pushing to rewrite the association's rules so one of its leaders could succeed Priscilla Hunter and represent nongaming tribes on the powerful, eight-member executive committee, sources said.
It was that move that reportedly angered Milanovich, who declined requests for an interview.
Miranda, the association's chairman, confirmed that "there have been discussions regarding people's right to vote and at what level."
Miranda said the organization also is reviewing its fee structure, which charges nongaming tribes $650 a year. It costs more than $5,000 per tribe to conduct the association's meetings throughout the year, Miranda said.
"We've talked about a dues structure that is more realistic in terms of the industry and the state," he said, noting that nongaming California tribes and those with very small casinos receive at least $1.1 million annually in revenue sharing from gaming tribes.
Regardless, Sycuan Chairman Danny Tucker, a former longtime CNIGA chairman, said gaming tribes continue to do what they can to help those without casinos.
"If they were castoffs, we wouldn't be still negotiating compacts that have revenue sharing," Tucker said.
"The stuff they're going through now is stuff they've been going through for the longest time. It's not tribe against tribe. It's what are the principles of CNIGA? Where is it supposed to be going?"
Matt Franklin, chairman of the 700-member Ione band, a landless tribe seeking a new reservation where it could build a casino, said he and his tribe have been thrust in the middle of the debate.
"I respect the gaming tribes. They paved the road for us to get into gaming," Franklin said. "But at the same time . . . I don't want them to look at any tribe any differently just because it has an economic base.
“A tribal leader is a tribal leader. It doesn't matter how big their bank account is.”
Franklin said he warned the organization's members that if they raise dues too high, or take away nongaming tribes' votes, tribes will leave.
Los Coyotes' Siva said he and his tribe aren't going anywhere, no matter how disappointed they may be at times.
"There are going to be other people in California that want what these tribes have and they have the political power to affect things, just like the tribes do," Siva said.
"When that happens, and it probably will happen, Los Coyotes will still back Agua, San Manuel, Pechanga, Sycuan and every other tribe . . . and I dare say every other nongaming tribe in California will do the same thing, regardless of how we feel.
"It's kind of like your brother is your brother whether you like him or not."
Find this article at: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20070730-9999-1n30tribes.html
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