Boxer, Fong say state should negotiate with tribes

Friday, June 12, 1998 | 8:16 a.m.

Gambling provides crucial economic support to the reservations, Boxer said.

"For years, (the Indians) were told, 'Pick yourselves up and take care of your people,"' Boxer said earlier this week. "Now they're taking care of their people and they're helping communities, and Gov. Wilson is going to shut them down. It's very sad. It's wrong."

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno met Wednesday in Washington, D.C. with representatives of more than 100 California Indian tribes.

The tribes asked Reno to intervene in their dispute with Wilson over the $500 million-a-year Indian gambling industry's fight to keep video slot machines and other lucrative casino-style gambling games - such as roulette and banked blackjack - at their reservation casinos.

At least 16 tribes have sued the state over the issue; many of the remaining two-dozen tribes are considering it.

Federal law allows the governor to negotiate gambling agreements, called compacts, with the various tribes that establishes the kinds of gambling that can take place on the reservations.

The tribes contend the governor seeks unfair restrictions on their operations. The Wilson administration says the Indians are illegally operating thousands of illegal video slot machines in defiance of federal and state law.

Federal prosecutors in California agree, but have not yet seized equipment. But court hearings on the issue are coming next. On July 13 in Fresno, for example, federal prosecutors for the state's Eastern District will present arguments in U.S. District Court to crack down on the allegedly illicit gambling.

Boxer, a Democrat, said she urged the Justice Department to take "a very good look" at the Indians' concerns.

Fong, a Republican, stopped short of denouncing the Wilson administration's policies, but he said the compacts should reflect the tribes' autonomy.

Fong spokesman Steve Schmidt said Fong is against unlimited gambling in California, but recognizes that Native American populations are members of sovereign nations and have the right to have gambling on their lands.