Rowland to seek help on handling Indian issues

Tuesday, May 16, 2000 | 2:21 a.m.

"I'm incapable at this juncture of understanding all the complications of compacts and all the legal aspects of land claims," Rowland said in an interview with The Day.

"What I'm trying to do is get some experts involved that understand these issues because it's very complicated. It's not your average run-of-the-mill legal education. You've got to find people with expertise and knowledge of these issues," Rowland said.

The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs has given preliminary approval to federal recognition for the Eastern Pequot and Paucatuck Eastern Pequot tribes, either as a single entity or individually.

Two additional state-recognized tribes, the Golden Hill Paugussetts and the Schaghticokes, have also submitted petitions to the BIA.

If any of the tribes gets official recognition, the tribes would be eligible to open a casino in Connecticut after negotiations with the state.

If a new tribe enters the casino arena, it also would force the governor to renegotiate the state's gaming compact with the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes.

Under agreements with those tribes, the state gets 25 percent of the slot machine revenues at Foxwoods Resort Casino and the Mohegan Sun - about $300 million a year.

"A couple years ago it was easy for the state to negotiate with one tribe for one compact: You get rid of the land claims, give us 25 cents on the dollar, we'll all live together happily. Now it's much more complicated," Rowland said.

A bill before the Legislature this year would have created a new Office of State Tribal Relations within the governor's office. The bill gained Senate approval, but died when the House of Representatives did not vote on the bill.