The decision, which will revive the fight over the land, came at a time when the relationship between New York State and other Indian tribes was already at a low point. The Interior Department,
In November, Gov. David A. Paterson approved the casino in exchange for the tribe, which has roots in New York, dropping its claim to 23,000 acres in upstate Madison County. That fight will now resume.
Kimberly Vele, president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohicans, called the decision a “setback for the tribe,” the state and the Catskills. She said it was disheartening that the Interior Department had “done an 11th-hour about-face by failing to support and finalize the agreements.”
“While we believe the department’s rationale is weak,” she added, “we are committed to resolving the issues” about the land.
In addition to the land dispute with the Stockbridge-Munsees, the state is at odds with the Senecas and St. Regis Mohawks, which it says have refused to turn over more than $235 million in revenue-sharing payments. Also, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is demanding that Indian retailers pay excise taxes on cigarettes sold on their reservations to non-Indians. That could generate an estimated $200 million a year for the state.
“I’m dumbfounded by the perpetual antagonism,” said Robert Odawi Porter, president of the Seneca Nation of Indians, which operates casinos in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca.
Much of that antagonism is rooted in the speedy growth of legalized gambling in New York. Not long after the 9/11 attack, with the state’s finances shaky, the Legislature authorized six Indian casinos and the installation of electronic slot machines, known as video lottery terminals, at nine struggling racetracks, with all of them contributing a portion of their income to the state.
Legislators thought they had tapped into a revenue gusher, and found an elegant solution to a nettlesome problem, by approving Indian casinos in exchange for agreements to settle tribal claims on thousands of acres. But as three of the casinos were built and the slot machines were installed at the tracks, Mr. Porter acknowledged that what seemed to be a good idea was no longer working — everyone began competing for gamblers, and other states, notably Pennsylvania, allowed more gambling.
The racetrack slots now contribute more than $450 million a year to the state, and machines being installed at Aqueduct racetrack in Queens are predicted to generate $300 million more. Last September, the Seneca Nation voted to formally terminate revenue-sharing payments from slot machines at its casinos, claiming that the state had broken a gambling compact by allowing electronic slot machines at three racetracks — Hamburg, Batavia and Finger Lakes — in an area where the state had granted the tribe exclusive rights.
The state disputes that, claiming the electronic slot machines do not qualify as slot machines under the compact.
The Senecas now owe an estimated $228.9 million for 2009 and 2010, according to the state.
In October, the St. Regis Mohawks also terminated revenue-sharing payments to the state because, the tribe said, the state had violated the terms of its gambling compact, which gave it exclusive rights to operate slot machines in a seven-county area.
The tribe, which has about 2,000 slot machines at the Akwesasne Casino near the Canadian border, contends that the state has turned a blind eye to slot machines operating at the Ganienkeh Territorial Bingo hall in Altona, about 90 miles east of the Mohawk reservation. The Ganienkeh community is run by a separate band of Mohawks.
“As in all things gambling in New York and other states, there is no clear solution,” said Bennett Liebman, an expert on the gambling industry and the executive director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School. “It depends on what the state is looking for. Is it looking for jobs? Is it looking for revenue? Is it looking for an overall resolution of all its Indian issues?”
Meanwhile, local communities, which have grown accustomed to getting 25 percent of the revenue-sharing funds, are upset about the state’s hard-line stance.
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